


Mens Rea

by Ronny_Lyle



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Heaven, Heaven & Hell, Hell, Immortality, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ronny_Lyle/pseuds/Ronny_Lyle
Summary: After five-hundred years of wandering a post-apocalyptic earth, Klaus Hargreeves is still unable to die. But when Ben finds his way back to Earth, he breaks the rules and brings Klaus to the afterlife. An almighty figure with the appearance of a child, simply referred to as "She," takes pity on Klaus and his siblings and gives them twenty-four hours to prove that Klaus belongs in the afterlife. In those twenty-four hours, the Hargreeves siblings must decide where their loyalties lie and what they're willing to sacrifice for their family as they go into Klaus's memory in search of his redemption.
Comments: 19
Kudos: 61





	1. The Obituary

**Part 1:** The Obituary

**Dallas, post-apocalypse**

In the split-second between the fire around him and total darkness, Klaus believed that he was finally in hell.

_ What a relief... _ he thought.

He opened his eyes to see the deep blue sky above. Long grass waved around him, and he felt the cool earth under him.

_ Well, fuck. _

Klaus sat up abruptly and ran his hands down his arms, then his legs, then his face. Only then did he look down at himself. His body appeared to be totally unharmed, much to his surprise. He sighed in utter disappointment and looked around.

The grass stretched to the horizon in every direction, nothing but barren land for miles and miles. The only thing in sight that measured higher than the grass was an old house that towered above him, its broken windows and peeling paint seemed to grin down at him with a hunger that chilled him to the bone. 

The front door flew open, and a man dressed in a military uniform burst out. He looked around frantically, not really seeing anything around him but searching for something specific.

Klaus sighed. In relief or disappointment, he didn’t know.

“Dave!” Klaus waved him over. “Are you okay?”

“ _ Klaus!” _ Dave’s hand flew up to cover his heart. “Cheese-and-crackers!” 

Dave cleared the three porch steps in one easy leap, and hurried over to Klaus.

“Are you okay? Are you alright?”

"Ah, yes. Unfortunately, I’m fine. Better luck next time.” Klaus waved Dave's hands away and got up on his own, then rested his own hands on the other man's shoulders. “Are  _ you  _ alright?"

Dave looked at Klaus with wide eyes, and nodded enthusiastically. 

“It didn’t work.” Klaus heaved, holding on to Dave’s shoulder with one hand and tightening his grip. “ _ It didn’t work….” _

“Oh, it’s alright, darling.” Dave put his arm lovingly around Klaus and hugged him tightly. “Why don’t you come inside?”

“I was so  _ scared…”  _ Klaus’s voice cracked, and he tried to swallow the lump that had formed in the back of his throat. “Scared that I would wake up…”

“It’s alright…” Dave hushed him, and guided him towards the house.

“-and you wouldn’t be here.”

“Well," Dave sighed apathetically, suddenly getting annoyed. "Here I am.”

Klaus didn't say anything else as they staggered up the stairs, the wood planks creaking and whining against their heavy boots. Dave reached for the door, but Klaus beat him to it, holding it open for the other man to enter. As Dave stumbled inside, Klaus looked around once again at the empty land. There was nothing but flat lands, miles and miles of nothingness. He shook his head and swallowed the lump forming in his throat, before he followed Dave inside.

As he shut the door, he followed the narrow hallway that went all the way through the house and to the back. At the end of it was a small kitchen, clearly out of use. The cabinets under the rusted sink had been busted open and raided, and the refrigerator had been knocked over and laid across the cracked tile floor. Some type of hairless little rodent hissed up at Klaus and scurried away, disappearing through a hole in the wall. But it had been a long time since Klaus had seen a kitchen, and a little flicker of excitement burst up within him. But he was determined not to let Dave see how happy he was, and he quickly put on a serious face.

“Someone’s been here.” Klaus muttered, eyeing the pantry. The door had been torn off its hinges, the insides ravished and empty. Dave watched him study the pantry and followed his eyes to a dark, faded stain on one of the wooden shelves that could only be blood.

“Do you think there are more survivors?” Dave furrowed his eyebrows and looked over at Klaus.

“No,” Klaus said with a sad certainty, voicing what they both already knew. “Not anymore.”

He picked up a piece of glass among the ruins and inspected it. It was coated in blood so old, that it appeared to be almost entirely black. 

“But someone was here before the apocalypse.”

Dave didn’t respond, but stepped over the refrigerator lying empty on the ground, and gently shouldered Klaus out of the way. Starting from the bottom, he scanned the shelves with his eyes, inspecting every corner until he reached the top.

“Ah-ha!” Dave shouted victoriously, and raising his eyebrows at Klaus. He reached up and fished around on the top shelf. A few boxes fell to the ground, stirring the thick layer of dust that coated the tile. He collected several bottles of water and a couple of small boxes, and turned back to Klaus.

Klaus reached for one of the boxes and inspected it. It was chicken noodle soup. 

He looked up at Dave to see the other man grinning. Klaus smiled back.

“Tonight we eat like royalty!” Klaus chuckled lightly.

“Would you like chicken noodle, or bean soup, my  _ queen _ ?” Dave asked in a mock-British accent.

“It will be thy finest poultry for me, sir.”

“Coming straight away.” Dave glanced around and spotted a fireplace on the opposite wall. He leaned down and gathered some of the broken wood from the cabinets before tossing it into the fireplace.

Klaus watched as a faint orange glow formed around Dave's figure, that grew bigger and bigger until a fire crackled before them.

“Think we’ll find any pots or pans in here?” Klaus asked, picking up a thin, wooden plank from the floor. He took off his boots and tied his socks around the end of the stick, before dipping it in the fire.

“Care-ful,” Dave warned in a sing-song voice. "That's hardly gonna give you any light, anyway."

Klaus lifted his make-shift torch from the fire, and held it beside him. The crackling light at the edge of it was already fading out.

“There’s gotta be a frying pan somewhere,” he said, turning towards the next room. “At least a spatula or something.”

The door had been broken off its hinges, so all that stood before him was a dark, door-shaped hole.

Klaus approached it, cautiously, stepping over the rubble in the process.

“Jesus Christ,” he whined quietly. “I’ve seen too many scary movies for this.”

“I thought you said you didn’t watch horror movies because of the whole-”

Dave gestured towards Klaus, searching for the word.

“- ‘Sixth Sense’ deal?”

“That's true, and yet, I still know it never ends well for the slut who slowly walks through the haunted house.” Klaus sighed. "At some point you've got to wonder _why_ she hasn't started running...or turning on the lights."

He shuddered, before stepping careful over some wooden planks jutting out from the ground, and then stopped.

“Wait…" he said, turning back around to look at Dave. "How do you know about the ‘Sixth Sense’? You died in the sixties.”

Dave shrugged, casually, but didn't answer. Klaus paused for a moment, debating whether or not he wanted to keep pushing this. Ultimately, he decided he didn't care enough. He raised his torch above him and it illuminated the doorway, a gut-wrenching amount of cobwebs shining in view. He fanned the cobwebs out of the way with an over-extended arm, and leaped back, out of the reach of any lurking spiders. When none appeared, he slowly entered the other room. 

It was only a little bigger than the kitchen, and the room's only contents were a filthy mattress that looked like a cozy home for the world's remaining bedbugs, and a couple of paint cans sitting under the small window.

Klaus groaned and trudged back towards the kitchen, the last of the light from his make-shift torch fizzling out.

As he crossed through the doorway, he picked up a partially-cracked ceramic bowl and dusted it off.

“How about this?” He asked, waving it in front of Dave.

“That’ll do.”

Klaus finished making the soup, and it left them feeling warmer but unsatisfied. This house was peaceful enough, but hunger was going to be a problem. He looked up at Dave, who was sitting opposite of him and mindlessly eating from the bowl before handing it back to Klaus. He was going to have to convince Dave to keep moving, and that was never an easy task. The thousands of deaths they had faced since their first had really taken a toll on Dave, and he had given up. He no longer cared what happened to him and Klaus, because he knew they’d wake up again the next day. While Dave took comfort in knowing they’d wake up, Klaus found it disturbing. It was hard to avoid existential dread when one was damned to never stop living.

He decided not to bring it up at this time, and smiled shallowly when he caught Dave's eye.

“I’m gonna get ready for bed,” He yawned dramatically, stretching his arms out to playfully touch Dave's shoulder. He handed the near-empty bowl back, and stood up.

But that night, anxiety clawed at his gut, and his stomach turned at the thought of slowly starving and withering away.

“Dave, wake up…”

“Hmm..?”

“I think we should go.”

“Go where?”

“Run away…”

“Are you serious..?”

“Yes.”

“Klaus, we don’t know what’s out there. What are we gonna eat? Where are we going to go? How will we survive?”

“I don’t know. But we can’t stay here.”

“Go to sleep, Klaus. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

And so he was quiet for the rest of the night, b ut sleep never came. It rarely did these days. Klaus found himself staring up at the ceiling, listening to Dave snoring lightly beside him. When morning finally rolled around, Klaus hopped out of bed and eyed those cans of paint under the small window. He chuckled lightly to himself, and picked one up before tipped it lightly over Dave. Light blue paint splattered over his chest, and sunk deeply into the sheets. Dave woke with a start and looked up at Klaus, stunned.

“What in God’s  _ name-” _

“Surprise…” Klaus said softly, dramatically waving his hands around in a jazz formation.

Dave leaned forward, and shook his head in confusion. He tried to judge whether Klaus had completely lost it, or if he was just being Klaus.

“Happy Birthday…” He said, once again doing jazz hands.

“It’s not… my birthday…” Dave stuttered, trying to remember what day it was. He wasn't sure, they hadn't kept track in ages.

“Okay,” Klaus sighed dramatically, and put down the paint can. “Well, we don’t know when your birthday is, but since we’ve been here a long time, your birthday must’ve passed at _some_ point. So-”

Klaus picked the can back up and drizzled more onto the bed, turning everything around it blue.

“-Happy Birthday.”

Dave sat up, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed, causing paint to splatter onto the floor.

“That’s really sweet, Klaus,” Dave looked up at him with such sincerity, that Klaus had to wonder if he really meant it. “But stop throwing paint around. This is going to be impossible to clean up.”

“Why would we clean this up?” Klaus forced a fake light-heartedness into his voice, but the words had come out a little too quickly for it to be believable. “It’s not like we’re staying here.”

Dave eyed him but didn’t reply, his light eyes seeming to look right through him. Klaus chuckled nervously as he kept up his “ _Who, me?_ ” facade.

Dave dropped his gaze and sighed.

“If that’s the way it’s gonna be.” he said coldly, and shrugged.

Klaus forced a smile, and looked around for an excuse to avoid the awkward tension that had grown exponentially between them in the past few minutes.

“I’ll pack!” Klaus said suddenly, and he hurried away to the kitchen without waiting for a reply. He threw open the pantry door, and quickly collected the remaining bottles of water. There were five of these, much to Klaus’s relief. They could last a lot longer without food than without water. Klaus let out a sigh, trying to ease his anxiety as he picked up the last remaining box of food. It was half-full of cold beans. It would have to do. He already felt hungry, but he wasn't really. It was the psychological kind of hunger, the kind that used to make him snack on potato chips between meals. But it wouldn’t be long until the _real_ hunger kicked in. Physical hunger; the type that would eat him from the inside out. He figured he had maybe a day before the physical hunger set in. Two, if he was lucky.

“Come on Dave!” He called in a voice that trembled slightly.

Dave slouched against the side of the open doorway, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He watched Klaus with heavy eyes as the other man wrapped up the last box of food in his jacket, and then placed it carefully in his duffle bag. 

“Come on, Dave,” he said distractedly as he pulled the bag closed and slung it over his shoulder.

“I think we should wait…” Dave protested softly.

Klaus stopped dead in his tracks, just before the hallway. 

“No, no,” he said, turning back. “Dave, _please_ no!”

“Why bother?” Dave shrugged carelessly.

“Because…” Klaus walked slowly towards him, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Starvation is not a pleasant death, and I really don't want to go through it. Not again, okay?”

Dave stood looking at him for a moment, a challenge flaring in his eyes. For a moment, Klaus thought he would put up a fight. Shrug and go back to bed, like he did sometimes. How would Klaus convince him otherwise? What if Dave refused to leave? Then Klaus would be trapped, starving to death, yet again. He couldn’t bear it. Finally, Dave blinked and nodded easily, like he didn't care. Like he might've been resisting just to spook Klaus. For the fun of it.

“Okay.” Dave said with a smirk, a bitter tone to his voice. “Let me grab my things.”

Klaus let out a long sigh of relief, trying to keep his voice down, dreading the thought of Dave hearing the relief in his voice from the other room. When he reappeared, Klaus hurried towards the door and held it open for him. 

“Pick a path.” Dave said dryly, as Klaus let go of the door, and took in the overgrown grass that stretched to the horizon all around them. 

He shrugged wordlessly and started straight forward, as Dave trailed a little behind.

He pushed forward with fake confidence, breathing slowly, and deeply, to steady his racing heart. He raised his chin and straightened his posture, hoping Dave was watching. He looked up at the empty land ahead, and panic twisted in his gut. There was no water out here, there would be no rain. He put a hand over the strap of his duffle bag, suddenly finding the weight of it comforting. They’d have enough water to last a few days, but they needed some of it for the soup. 

_ Fuck it.  _ He thought. They could survive much longer without food than they could water. The food would have to be saved for emergencies.

Klaus shook his head, trying to put the fear out of his mind. He needed a distraction, and looked back at the only distraction for miles.

“Have you ever…” Klaus said playfully, trying to hide that he was out of breath. “...eaten dry noodles?”

Dave didn’t answer, and Klaus tried to sneak a look back at him. He was looking down, like he was focused on something only he could see. He didn’t acknowledge Klaus, and he looked more like someone who was walking alone than with a loved one.

Klaus swallowed hard, and looked forward again.

“Let’s play Two Lies and a Truth!” He said with a sly grin. “I’ll go first. Uh, I’ve been to three Katy Perry concerts… I have brown eyes… and I once had an orgy with the ghosts of Elvis Presley, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the entire cast of  _ It’s a Wonderful Life!” _

He looked back at Dave, now grinning from ear to ear. Dave was biting his lip and looking at the sky, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Ah-ha!” Klaus shouted cheerfully, pointing a finger in the other man’s direction. 

“Please tell me you have brown eyes.” Dave wheezed. Klaus turned back to him and widened his eyes as much as he could, prompting Dave to burst into laughter.

“Good to see you’re using your powers for a good cause.” Dave shook his head, and caught up to Klaus. He giggled, and kept moving forward, glad to be side by side with Dave.

“Only for the  _ best _ !”

The sun was beginning to set and Klaus was covered in a cold sweat. His heart pounded, and his lungs struggled to take in the air.

_ Breathe, Number Four. Breathe. _

“Ehhhh!” Klaus exclaimed, and wrinkled his nose in disgust. 

“What?” Dave called, turning to face him.

“Oh nothing." He said, bitterly. "Just the memory of ‘Daddy Dearest’ sneaking up on me.”

Dave didn’t reply to this, but stopped Klaus by stepping in front of him.

“We should stop soon.” Dave breathed. “Your back must be killing you from carrying that bag!”

“No!” Klaus lied. “It’s fine-"

He paused, looking at the ground, and wincing with every breath he took.

"-But yeah, on an unrelated note, we should stop.”

Klaus dropped the bag and collapsed where he stood.

_ “FUCKKK…”  _ He  groaned.

Dave squatted and rubbed his hands together to try and warm them. He looked up at the darkening sky around them.

“We can’t stay here for long, though. We’re out in the open. Besides, we’ve got nothin’ to eat.”

“What are you talking about? We have half a box of soup and this water,” Klaus grabbed a bottle and waved his arm above his head. His elbow buckled as he held up his arm though, causing it to crash down as if it had been stolen and replaced with a noodle.

“Water’s warm. It’s not hot enough for the soup.”

“The water has to be hot?” Klaus groaned, squinting at Dave through the grass.

“Well, I guess it don’t  _ have  _ to be." Dave said, warming his hands by rubbing them together. "But to get proper soggy, yeah, it’s gotta be hot.”

“Fuck.” Klaus coughed, still trying to catch his breath. Dave looked at him carefully, and then shook his head.

“You’re exhausted. We’ll stay here for a little while.”

Klaus looked up at Dave again, and watched as he rocked on his ankles and bit his nails. He realized that this was probably the longest time Dave had ever gone without food. Starving was easy to talk about when you’ve died a thousand times, but it was one of the most difficult things to actually go through with. 

He felt an old, familiar pang of guilt, and once again wondered why She wouldn’t take Dave.

“Nope,” Klaus said, slowly getting to his feet and feeling every ache in his body. "We're going."

“Klaus, we can stay…”

“No, no. Don’t underestimate the  stamina of _this_ body.” He paused, and looked Dave up and down slowly. “You should know better.”

“Fine. I’m carrying the bag though.”

“No you’re not.”

“ _ Klaus.” _

“No, no. Come on." Klaus started forward unsteadily, his feet swinging out as he hurried on. "Adventure awaits!”

Dave ran to catch up with Klaus.

“Let’s just sleep for a little while,” he pleaded with Klaus, who looked like he might pass out.

“ _ Nooo…” _ Klaus breathed. “I’ll sleep when I’m  _ dead…” _

Dave snorted. “So never? You’ll never sleep?”

“You heard me.” Klaus was really struggling to breathe now. His vision was blurring, and sweat was running down his face. But, nevertheless, he pushed forward.

Klaus kept telling himself that there would be a city just over this horizon, no matter how long they walked on for. When the city didn't appear, he told himself it was just on the next horizon, and the one after that.

The heat didn’t let up during the night, but the air got drier. No matter how much water Klaus drank, it wasn’t enough. He tried not to drink at all, in fear that they would run out when they needed it most.

When the moon was directly above them, like an open hole at the top of a fishbowl, Klaus began to stagger on his numb legs.

“Klaus?" Dave called, squinting in the dim moonlight at the silhouette a little ways behind him. " _ Klaus!”  _

Klaus collapsed, and Dave ran to his side and fell onto his knees beside him. He brushed away the hair that was stuck to his forehead. 

“ _ Klaus? _ Oh Jeez!” Dave dug through the bag and grabbed a bottle of water. He fumbled with the cap, and raised the bottle to Klaus’s lips. 

“Okay, Klaus. That’s okay.” Dave said more to himself than to his partner. He sniffled and looked around them. The only sight around them was still miles and miles of knee-high grass.

“I’m sorry, Dave,” Klaus wheezed. “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s okay, Klaus. We’ll just wait here and wait to die, it's no problem. We’ll come back and start over.”

“No,” Klaus pleaded hoarsely. “I don’t want this for you.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Yes, you are,” he broke out in a fit of dry coughs that caused his whole body to spasm. He took a deep breath before continuing. “You can get supplies and come back. You’re our only chance at not starving out here.”

Dave opened his mouth to protest, but Klaus cut him off.

“ _ Please. _ ” His voice shook as he put all of his remaining effort into this word. “I don’t want to starve again.”

Dave nodded slowly at first, and then vigorously. He used some of the long grass to cover Klaus from tomorrow’s sun, and took a bottle of water.

“Okay. I’ll be back soon. I promise.” Dave nodded to reassure himself, and then jogged off.

“I know you will…" He whispered, barely conscious, long after the other man was gone.

Klaus didn’t know how much time had passed. Sometimes he’d wake up and it would be day, sometimes he'd wake up and it would be night. The water was long gone, and he spent his rare conscious moments with his eyes on the horizon. He hoped to see a figure appear there and know that everything would be alright. Because everything right now was horrifying. 

It felt like being eaten alive, inside-out. And he supposed, in a way, that’s what hunger was. Sometimes the pain was so bad, all he could do was try to breathe and hope to pass out. Other times he was aware of the milder, but much more pressing threat: thirst. He tried to remember his father’s lessons. 

_ Could a person go two weeks without food, or was it three? _

_ Could you go three days without water, or four? _

He hoped it was three days. That would mean it wouldn’t be too long until he died again, and he'd get to start over.

Klaus knew his mind was going when he woke up in the night to see Ben looking over him. Ben was long gone, and so were all the other ghosts. Not even the dead would visit him in this place. 

“Klaus?” Ben leaned closer to get a better look, as if he were unsure that it was his brother he was looking at.

_ Ben… _ his eyes felt heavy, and his body was numb. It wouldn’t be long now. 

“Okay,” Ben said, closing his eyes and growing anxious. “Okay, Klaus. I  _ really  _ need you to talk to me. What happens when you die? Where do you go?”

Klaus muttered under his breath, trying to form words. Ben leaned in closer.

“Please, Klaus. I’m trying to help you. Where will you go?”

“My...fault…” Klaus barely had a voice left, and he struggled to open his eyes. “ _ Dave…” _

“Klaus, _please_. Tell me where I can find you after you die.”

But Klaus was too far gone to hear the desperation in his brother’s voice. A vague memory flickered in his mind, of his first hit. The overwhelming pleasure of heroin overtook him before everything faded to blue and dulled his senses.

“Fuck, okay." Ben said, shaking his head aggressively and gazing down at his dying brother. "We’re just going do this now. Right now.”

Klaus was faintly startled when Ben pulled him awkwardly onto his lap, but he was too far gone to really process the movements.

The last thing Klaus saw was the blurry sight of Ben leaning in close to him and saying something that he couldn't understand. And then suddenly, Klaus ceased to exist. Everything about him that was mortal was instantly gone. The hunger, the exhaustion, the pain. The only thing he was aware of was Ben's arms around him and the feeling of bliss that came from being rescued from his own mortality.


	2. The Mind is its Own Place

**Part 2:** The Mind is its Own Place

**The Hargreeves’s House, nowhere in time.**

Klaus woke up to the sound of anxious voices whispering somewhere above him. His first thought was-

_ Dave! _

But at soon as his ears adjusted, he knew that none of the voices belonged to Dave. Though, the voices did sound exceedingly familiar.

“Diego.” one of the voices said. “What time is it?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Diego exclaimed and paused, for a moment. Though Klaus had his eyes closed, he felt as if he could see his brother cocking an eyebrow and dramatically pulling back his leather sleeve to check his bare wrist in a bout of sarcasm. “It’s a, uhhhh… quarter-past eternity. I don’t fucking know!”

“I think that was our ape-brained brother’s way of asking how long he’s been out.” Said a different voice. High-pitched in it’s youth, yet full of aggression.

“I don’t fucking know!” Diego repeated, raising his voice and moving it up and down for emphasis. “What do I look like? Father Time?”

“Maybe if you weren’t constantly timing your workouts,” Another voice chimed in, and Klaus could almost see Allison’s crossed-arms, her eyes glaring with disapproval. “Then we wouldn’t be looking at you.”

“Hey!” Diego growled. “No one asked you.”

Klaus heard him stutter briefly before continuing, his brother’s voice growing nearer.

“Look at him!” Diego said, his voice quieter now. “He’s probably dead, anyway.”

“Oh no!” Vanya cried, as genuine as ever. In his the realm of the half-conscious, Klaus  could see his sister’s eyes in his mind’s projection. She had kinder eyes than any he’d ever seen, with a warm glow radiating from them. The kind of eyes that tempted you to spill all your secrets in the name of trust. But it was more than trust. To look Vanya in those soft eyes was to feel an emotional connection, to love her. Klaus briefly wondered as he often did, how they mistreated her in their childhood. He felt a pang of regret sting his chest.

“I knew it!” Luther shouted in a panic, ready to do anything to save one of his siblings at  the drop of a dime. 

“Does anyone know first aid?”

  
“Guys,” Ben said in his wonderful voice, that managed to contradict itself with every word. Klaus still never understood how a voice could be soft and sweet, and still demand the attention of anyone within range. Drifting in his void, feeling a little more conscious than he had before, the sound of it was like a ballad at full blast. 

“We’re in the afterlife. If Klaus was  dead, he’d be...here.”

“So…” Luther said slowly, trying to fit the pieces together in his mind. “He  _ is _ dead, then?  I mean...he’s here.”

“So…” Diego began speaking in the middle of Luther’s question. “I’m right!”

“Guys!” Five yelled, and his voice reminded Klaus of two sticks being frantically rubbed  together. Sparking, overheating, never knowing when they would burst into flames. “It doesn’t matter! What matters is-”

“You’re not fucking right!” Allison snorted, her voice thick with emotion, despite her  best efforts to hide it. 

“We’re all technically dead!”

  
As Klaus neared the surface of consciousness, he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, so he blinked a few times as the figure over him came into view. Ben wasn’t looking at Klaus, and hadn’t noticed his brother coming to. His eyes were trained on Allison and Diego who stood above him, as he sat on the floor, arms around his brother.

“Ben?” Klaus whispered. His voice was barely audible, but Ben snapped his attention away from his bickering siblings, and stared down at Klaus in surprise.

“Yeah, Allison.” Diego continued, pointing his knife at her like a finger. “But I mean Klaus is dead-dead. And  _ you’d _ know all about that-”

“Guys!” Ben exclaimed, drawing the attention to him and Klaus, forcing Allison and Diego to take their glaring eyes off of each other. Five shuffled forward to get a better look, hands on his hips as he rocked nervously on his heels.

Klaus looked around, still feeling as if he wasn’t fully awake. Ben looked up at him, a pure smile pained with relief was painted over his features. Five stood over them, staring skeptically down at his brothers. Diego and Allison stood a few feet away, their feud momentarily forgotten, as they looked at Klaus with wide, child-like eyes. A pleasantly-surprised Luther and Vanya sat on the nearest couch. As she noticed Klaus, Vanya slid to the floor beside him to get a better look.

“Klaus!” Five barked, and for a split second, he reminded Klaus so much of Reginald that the shock of it woke him up a little more. He relaxed a little with the assurance that their father had never called him by his name.

“Klaus?” Ben said in a much softer voice, and smiled in pure, unabridged joy that nearly brought Klaus to tears. “It’s us. You’re okay now!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Diego muttered, looking at - what Klaus was sure was probably - the gaunt, ghostly figure of his brother. Allison glared sharply at Diego, then she moved closer and knelt to the floor beside where he laid in Ben’s arms.

“Klaus?” She called, as if she was trying to get his attention from across the room.

“Dave?” He responded, his vision going blurry as the floor seemed to swirl beneath him.

“Uh, no.” She said, looking up at Ben and Five, cocking her head slightly in confusion. “It’s Allison, your sister.”

Klaus didn’t respond, he couldn’t. He was having a difficult time processing her words.

Ben met Allison’s eye, and took that as a cue.

“Hey buddy,” He said in his soft voice that brought so much comfort to Klaus. He visualized Ben’s voice as waves rolling onto a beach on a bright, sunny day. 

“We’ve been looking for you for a very long time.” Ben cleared his throat before continuing. “You got lost. But, we found you and-”

Klaus’s head was knocked to the side and his cheek burned as a force slapped him across the face.

“ _ OWWW!” _ Klaus shrieked, looking up. He caught Ben’s eye, feeling betrayed, before he noticed that his brother looked just as shocked as he did. Then he caught Five’s smirking eyes, and knew that it was no mere force that had slapped him. It was an aggravated old man who was eternally trapped in the body of a kid. 

“Did you just slap me?” Klaus asked, looking at the daunting teenager towering over him. 

“Yes I did.” Five said, matter-of-factly. “And I’ll do it again if you don’t get your ass up.”

Klaus squinted at him, trying to gage if he was serious. He certainly wouldn’t put it past Five, he wasn’t a total idiot. But would he slap his poor, lost, hurting brother?

“No…” Klaus said, resting his head in the crook of Ben’s arm again. “I don’t think I will.”

Klaus’s previous question was answered seconds after this as he was almost immediately shaken by another slap. This one was just as hard - if not harder - than Five’s last slap.

Klaus let out a high-pitched scream, and kicked his legs out dramatically.

“Five more minutes!” He wailed, like a child asking to stay up later than his bedtime.

“Cut the shit!” Five snarled, raising his hand once again. Ben tried to interfere, but Five batted him away.

“Alright,  _ alright _ !” Klaus whined, sitting up and raising his hands. “Good to see that you’re still  _ mean _ !” 

Five reluctantly lowered his arm, and eyed Klaus suspiciously.

“Do you know where you are?” He demanded, shooing Ben away. Ben hesitantly backed away, forcing Klaus to sit up, but he still kept his fingers entwined with his brother’s. He looked at Five -  _ really _ looked at him now. His prior confusion had vanished and was replaced with a feeling of deep realization. 

_ They’re really here!  _ He thought, incredulous.

“ _ Five _ ?” he cried, his voice trembling as tears began to well in his eyes.

Five sat back, finally, and sighed with relief.

“Ben?” Klaus whispered, reaching out to touch his brother’s face. “It’s really you!”

  
In one graceful motion, Ben had pulled him into a tight hug. Klaus hugged him back even tighter, until it hurt them both. Not that either of them cared. He hugged Ben in a way that said everything he wanted to say. It was hungry, yet loving. It was bone-crushing, but felt better than anything Klaus had felt in years. It was a hug that said, _I’ve needed this more than you could ever know._

Klaus was the one to let go first, even though there was nothing that could’ve given him greater joy than staying in his brother’s arms. He let go of Ben and turned to Five, sweeping him into a big hug. Five stiffened in his arms and turned his face away. But he didn’t pull away immediately, and Klaus saw that as an absolute success.

Allison was next and she squealed as she ran into his arms. There was nothing in her embrace except pure, unfiltered joy. For some reason unknown to Klaus it made him sad, his stomach was beginning to feel hollow. So he pulled away from her and made sure to smile as he did so. Vanya caught his eye next, and he sighed as he met those eyes he had longed for every day he spent on Earth.

“ _ Vanny!”  _ he cried, and raised her small figure off of the ground as he hugged her. She kicked her feet in excitement and giggled the whole time. Klaus never wanted to let her go.

Luther was next, and he pulled his brother into a bear-hug so tight, Klaus thought he might die all over again. But he stayed there, willing to risk asphyxiation as his brother hugged him in a way that only Luther could.

Diego was last, and extended an arm as if to shake Klaus’s hand. Klaus scoffed, and slapped his hand away. He practically collapsed into Diego, making his brother stumble backwards. He tried foolishly to escape, prompting Klaus to sink to the floor with his arms fastened tightly around his brother’s shoulders.

“Okay, Klaus,” Diego wheezed, as Klaus sank to his knees, taking Diego down with him. “You’ve proven your point. You can let go now.”

As Klaus tried to force Diego onto the floor with him, his own mortality escaped his worries for just a moment. The first of these moments in a long chain of dark, troubled moments. And for that moment, it felt as if everything might be okay here. Like maybe Diego would stop shooting daggers out of the corner of his eye in Allison’s direction. Maybe Luther wouldn’t flinch if someone suddenly said their father’s name. Maybe Allison would stop crying at night, as Klaus would soon find out she does.

Five could relax with the knowledge that he no longer had to protect his family, because in heaven there’s nothing to protect from. And Ben could rest after his long journey searching the universe for his lost brother. And Klaus would never be unhappy a single day past this point. He wouldn’t have to worry about shelter, loneliness, food, mortality. He wouldn’t have to look up at the stars at night, and wonder about his siblings, because they would be right beside him. This purgatory would be heaven to him just with the knowledge that they were all safe, and that he’d never be apart from his siblings again.

But this wasn’t heaven, and so, the moment had to end. Any heaven outside of heaven couldn’t last. The Hargreeves’s moment just happened to be destroyed by the ringing sound of a bicycle bell from down the hallway.

Klaus let go of Diego finally, as the smile faded from his brother’s face and he reached for one of the knives on his belt.

They turned towards the entryway as She rode in, a frowning queen on a dark horse.

Diego scrambled to his feet as She rode her bicycle around the edge of the living area, like a shark circling Her prey. Klaus had only seen Her a handful of times, but her long, dark hair and her youthful features were unmistakable. 

Klaus approached Her slowly as She skidded to a halt on her bicycle. His heart pounded in his chest, as all the pain he suffered on Earth welled up inside of him. All the restlessness, the anxiety, the hopelessness, the lovelessness, and the loneliness. Hundreds of years of ghost towns and ruined cities, countless nights where he had cried himself to sleep. He had been damned, shunned, and abandoned. An eternity of grief, suffering, and cruelty, and for what?

But as he stood in front of Her, the only thing he could manage to say was:

  
“ _Why?”_

“Oh, hello Klaus.” She looked up at him with a neutral expression as if She hadn’t even noticed him, let alone banished him to a post-apocalyptic planet.

“Everyone,” She said, turning away from him to face his siblings. “Please take a seat.”

Klaus stood there for a moment, jaw agape, utterly speechless. He only moved when he felt hands gently grip the back of his arms, and guide him away. 

“It’s okay.” Ben said softly, one arm still lightly around him as he guided his brother to the opposite couch. 

_ But it’s not! _ Klaus thought, sinking into his seat on the couch next to Ben.  _ Can’t you see that? _

As Luther and Allison sat on the opposite couch, Five and Vanya took a seat at the bar, and Diego took a seat  _ on _ the bar. Klaus looked around at the living area, really taking in the details this time. 

He knew this place existed outside of time, but to see everything as it had always looked in his memory was nothing less than unnerving. Not even a scratch on the floor or a tear in the wallpaper. He wondered if there were younger versions of him and his siblings running around, at every moment in time, that he couldn’t see. He smiled sadly at the thought and visualized a fourteen year old Klaus in front of him.

_ And look where we are now... _ he thought bitterly, as he waited for Her to explain if he was still damned or not.

As everyone settled in, She handed a book to Five, and a file to Ben. 

Ben hesitantly took the file with a polite smile, and examined it as She returned to Her place at the head of the room. 

“What is that?” Klaus asked, eyes widening with a child-like curiosity as he leaned into Ben.

“I don’t know…” Ben replied, cracking open the folder and flipping through the papers within. But as soon as he did this, She looked up at them.

“I’ll ask you to save that for later, Ben.” She called.

Ben quickly snapped the folder shut and held it on his lap. Five swung around to look at Ben before hesitantly putting the book he received onto the stool beside him.

“I’ll address the instruments I’ve gifted you right away. They serve to help you with the trial.”

  
“The instruments?” Ben asked.

“The trial?” said Klaus.

“Yes,” She said plainly. “The instruments - the file for Ben, and the book for Five, - can be used to help you in the trial that will take place exactly twenty-four hours from the minute I arrived here.”

  
The room erupted into protests as all of the Hargreeves spoke at once.

“Twenty-four hours?” Allison scoffed, exchanging a glance with a puzzled Luther. “That’s insane!”

“Whose rules are we playing by?” Demanded Five, slamming down the bottle of brandy he had taken from the cabinet.

“Will we have a lawyer to represent us?” Vanya asked seriously, blinking her kind eyes.

Several questions erupted from the crowd about what She had meant by, “trial,” and She stood patiently as She waited for the noise to die down, leaning on Her bike.

“Guys, shhhh, let her explain!” Luther said, trying to calm his siblings. This didn’t work as the protests continued, and Diego started flipping a knife in his hand.

“EVERYONE!” Diego screamed, tossing the knife higher and higher. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Everyone in the room turned towards Diego, stunned, except Allison and She.

“Thank you, Diego.” She said, eyeing the knife curiously.

“Now,” She continued casually, and proceeded to explain Her meanings as if She were filling the Hargreeves in on what they missed on a television show. 

“As I’m sure you all know, Ben Hargreeves has broken the law by bringing your brother, Klaus Hargreeves, back here with him-”

“Wait-” Five interrupted, looking first at Ben, then at Her. “Is Ben in trouble?”

  
She sighed and rolled Her eyes.

“ _ No,”  _ She said, as if it were obvious. “I know he meant well, and I don’t really care enough to get fired up about this. But I do need to lay down some laws.”

Klaus heard Ben sigh with relief beside him, and watched him lean his head back for just a moment.

“So,” She continued, and Klaus noticed how remarkably still she was standing despite her casual demeanor. “Because you seem so convinced that Klaus is good, and have spent five-hundred years searching for him, I am willing to hear your side of this.”

“Five-hundred years?” Klaus repeated, incredulous, and let out a dangerous laugh. “Is that how long I’ve been on Earth?”

  
She continued as if he hadn’t spoken. 

“So, with the help of a file that lists Klaus Hargreeves’s wrongdoings, and a book about entering a moment in time through one’s memories - trusted to those in the family who will make the most of them, - you will have twenty four hours to make your case.”

“Make our case?” Diego shouted from his place on top of the bar. “What the fuck do you expect him to do? Turn into Erin Brokovich?” 

“That’s a poor analogy.” Klaus groaned, but the comment came out much flatter than he had intended.

“Will you shut up?” Allison said, whipping around to face Diego.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Allison.” Diego leaned towards her and sneered. “Do  _ you _ understand what the fuck is going on?”

“I think we’ll probably find out,” Allison said through gritted teeth. “If you ever shut the hell up!”

While Allison and Diego continued to bicker, She remained in Her perfect posture with that bored look on Her face.

“Don’t you want to know what’s going on?” Diego growled, tossing the knife higher and higher. The blade twirling in the air in a mesmerizing pattern.

“Yes,” Allison snarled. “But I think actually hearing what the instructions are is more important than whatever bullshit you’re starting.”  
“Oh, Allison.” Diego said with an awful mock-seriousness, his voice rich with sarcasm. “I didn’t think we should listen to instructions, I thought we should just wing it. Rest the fate of our brother on a whim. I thought that might be a fun thing to do.”

Before Allison could reply, Five let out a loud, dramatic sigh.

“ _ E-nough _ !” He shouted, annunciating every letter in the word to emphasize his point.

Allison and Diego glared at each other one last time, before turning back to face Her. But before She could continue, Luther leaned forward and smacked his lips to let everyone know that he was about to speak. Five rolled his eyes and poured himself another glass of brandy.

“Uh, ma’am?” Luther called awkwardly, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as Diego shot daggers at him from his eyes.

“Ms. God? Almighty She?”

“Drop the formalities, Luther.” She said, as bored as a kid at a four-hour opera.

“Um, okay. God?”

“No.” She shook Her head, not unkindly, but like She’d rather not be there. “Call me She.”

“Oh, okay.” Luther hesitated like he was unsure if She was serious. “...She?”

“Yes, Luther?”

“What did you mean when you said, ‘make our case’?”

“I mean,” She said plainly. “That you’ll work on Klaus using the instruments I’ve given you, and then at the end of the twenty-four hours, you’ll present your work and findings to me.”

“Work on me?” Klaus whispered to Ben, looking at him with a mischievous grin. “That sounds fun.”

Ben closed his eyes, and groaned.

"Must you make everything perverted?"

Klaus raised his eyebrows at Ben and laughed.

She paused for a moment and looked at each sibling in turn. Klaus could feel his heart beginning to thump in his chest as She met his eyes. He wanted to make a joke to take the heat off, but he felt as if She could see right through him. It reminded him of how Lieutenant Milcom from Vietnam would sometimes look at him, but without the hatred and disgust. Like She knew  _ exactly _ who Klaus was and what he was about, rendering him helpless. He shuddered, and crossed his arms, suddenly bothered.

“It’s simple, really.” She added before turning back to look at all of the siblings.

Luther nodded to indicate that he understood, even though he didn’t understand a thing.

“Okay,” Ben said, trying to piece together the instructions. “So, is there a guide for what we’re supposed to do? Like some sort of endgame, or a rubric we can follow?”

  
“No.” She said without hesitation. “No there’s not. Because this has never been done before. Most people in my realm can’t just _jump_ dimensions like you can, Ben. Not the former-mortals at least.”

Ben slouched away, and Klaus could see that his cheeks were taking on a rosy color.  
The Hargreeves sat in a stunned silence, staring up at Her. The words She said sounded like they would be passive-aggressive, but Her tone of voice indicated that She could not be less invested.

Klaus’s heart began to pound, and his palms grew damper as he pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders. He looked down at the camouflage pattern and shuddered.

“You have all the tools you need.” She continued. “But  _ you’ve _ dug this grave, Ben. So  _ you _ have to figure it out.”

Ben stared up at Her, stunned. She quickly added:

“All of you.”

“This isn’t right!” Allison exclaimed, Luther, Five, Ben, and Vanya nodding and murmuring in agreement. Diego was dead silent, confirming his agreement.

“ _ Right _ ?” She smiled funny, as if She didn’t understand. “If this is a question of fairness, you’d better take it up with Cowboy God. But I wouldn’t waste your time. I’ve already spoken to him.”

“And he agrees with this?” Klaus asked, not implying that he shouldn’t agree, but looking for confirmation.

“He told me to take the lead on this one.”

Diego looked at Klaus to gage his reaction, then turned to Her, pointing his knife like a finger again.

“You’re lying!” He exclaimed. Klaus knew almost for certain that his brother didn’t know who Cowboy God was, but he smiled at the effort.

“Why would I lie?” She said, and shrugged.

Diego searched for words, and stuttered briefly, breathing heavily. But no words came to him. At least, not that he said.

Silence followed, as the siblings tried to process what She had told them.

“Well,” She said abruptly, grabbing Her bike from where it leaned on a column. “If that’s all-”

  
“ _Wait-”_ Five shrieked, but She had already disappeared.

“I don’t understand…” Allison sighed, rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hands.

“Me neither,” said Vanya, nodding in agreement. “Why would She ride Her bike here if she could’ve just teleported?”

Five looked at her kindly and smiled.

“Vanya, that’s not the-”

But he was interrupted by Diego, who was fuming now.

“I know!” He swiveled around on the bar to face Vanya. “I was wondering the same thing!”

“Maybe She just enjoys riding her bike. Or She likes the view or something.” Vanya suggested, taking a sip of the glass of brandy Five had poured for her, and coughing.  
Diego shook his head.

“It’s just not practical-”

“THAT’S NOT THE FUCKING POINT!” Allison screamed at an ear-piercing pitch. All of her siblings looked at her in utter shock, particularly Klaus. It was strange seeing his sister who he had always admired for her level-headedness burst like this.

Diego’s mouth curved into a sick smile, as he watched his sister’s eyes tear up.

“God,” She said softly, dropping her face into her hands. “I’m sorry, I just-”

“Yeah?” Diego shouted, pointing his knife at her like an accusatory finger. “You should be.”

Allison looked up at Diego, and then at the knife pointed carelessly in her direction.

“Are you  _ threatening  _ me?” she shrieked, glaring at Diego. Any trace of vulnerability in her had disappeared in place of anger and spite.

“What?-” Diego said, looking at the knife in his hand like he hadn’t noticed it was there.

“Maybe I am, Allison.” He said, but he lowered his knife, anyway. “Maybe I am.”

“Guys-” Luther tried to cut in, but the argument was just building momentum.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Allison laughed dryly, even though there was nothing funny. “Did  _ I _ try to kill  _ you _ ? Or was it the other way around?”

Klaus shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and looked at Ben. His brother was watching their siblings argue with an expression that looked a lot to Klaus like disgust. His eyes were deadpan, his nose was wrinkled as if something smelled bad, and his teeth were slightly bared. It was a rare expression for his sweet brother.

“I didn’t  _ kill _ you-” Diego’s voice was rising steadily as the walls of rationality he had so carefully constructed to cover up his rage began to crumble.

“You tried to!” Allison shouted, slamming her hands down on the couch on either side of her, fueling Diego’s anger.

“Oh, well, Allison,” Diego said in a dangerously lower voice than before, and tapped his chin with his knife as if he were thinking. “I wonder why that fucking is-”

“SHUT UP!” Ben screamed, making up in volume what his sweet voice lacked in sharpness. “JUST SHUT UP!”

Silence followed, as Allison and Diego whipped around to face Ben, while the rest of the siblings looked anywhere but. 

“Look,” he said in a much quieter voice. “This isn’t about you guys. It’s about Klaus. We have twenty-four hours to-”

“Closer to twenty-three, now.” Vanya cut in sadly.

Ben looked up at her and sighed.

“Yes, twenty-three hours to try to save our brother’s soul, and all you two can think about is your own selfish problems?”  
“It’s not so selfish,” Allison replied to Ben, though she glared at Diego. “When I fear for my life!”

Diego whipped around and shot her a look of hatred.

“You’re already dead!” He sneered, as if that somehow gave him an upper-hand.

Klaus shook his head in confusion and disbelief.

“What the hell did I miss?” He said quietly, and all of his siblings slowly turned to look at him one by one. Some of them looked angry, some of them just looked sad. Ben looked disappointed. Allison let out a long, sad sigh.

“ _ Oh my god… _ ” she groaned as the past few minutes caught up to her. The Hargreeves siblings sat where they were in silence, trying to process the events of the past hour.

Finally Allison looked at Diego, who looked at her without disdain for the first time since Klaus had got there, maybe for the first time since they died.

“Look,” she said. “I’m calling a twenty-four hour truce. I’ll try not to bother you, if you do the same for me.”

Diego opened his mouth as if he were about to protest, but froze when he caught Klaus’s gaze. The look in his brother’s eye was wild with rage, but there was something deeper under it. For the first time, Klaus wondered if Allison had really done something awful. It wasn’t unlike their brother to be spiteful, but the pain in Diego’s eyes was enough to take the breath from Klaus. He couldn’t look away, as his brother screwed up his face in protest. Finally, Diego broke his gaze away, releasing Klaus from whatever hold he had just had.

He glanced briefly at Ben before turning back to Allison, and letting out an aggravated sigh.

“Deal.” Was all he said, as he slid off of the bar and started towards the entryway. He stopped and looked at Ben.

“I’ll help you go through whatever is in that fucking file.” Diego offered, failing to keep a light tone in his voice, despite his best efforts.

Ben looked at his brother surprised, before nodding enthusiastically. Diego started towards the entryway again, with Ben following closely behind.

“Okay!” Five said dryly, picking up the heavy book off of the stool beside him. “See you in a bit.”

And he vanished, taking the bottle of brandy with him. 

The remaining four siblings sat for a moment, looking at each other, unsure of what to do. Luther cleared his throat.

“Um, Vanya?” He said softly. Vanya looked up in surprise.

“Yes?”

“Could you…” Luther trailed off, and nodded towards the door. “Help me with something?”

“Uh, sure, Luther.” She said, looking at Allison and Klaus with a questioning look. They looked back at her blankly, just as unsure as she was. 

“As long as you guys are okay with that?”

Allison looked at Klaus to gage his response, and he just shrugged. He was kidding himself if he had any real idea of what was going on here.

“Sure,” Allison said. “I’ll stay here with Klaus.”

As Luther and Vanya left the room, Klaus turned to Allison and smiled dramatically, widening his eyes until they looked crazy. Allison looked at him, and burst into laughter. They sat there, giggling, old friends together again. They were both thrown by the absurdity of the situation - not that absurdity was new to the Hargreeves, - tired to the point of delirium, and still in a bit of shock over everything that had happened in the past hour.

“Do you want a drink?” Allison asked, already standing up.

“Always.” Klaus said as she crossed to the bar and threw open the cabinets in her grandiose way. 

“What do you want?” she knelt in front of the shelves on the wall and examined the bottles.

“We’ve got...wine, liquor, whiskey, brandy..?”

“Dealer’s choice!” Klaus called in a cheery, but empty voice.

Allison peered at him over the counter, and he caught her eye and smiled.

“It’s been a tough day.” She said, reaching for one of the bottles with a gleam in her eye. “Let’s go with whiskey.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Klaus leaned over the coffee table to clear it. All of Reginald’s vases, treasures, and fucking fossils for all Klaus knew were serving as a painful reminder of their dear,  _ dear  _ father.

Klaus picked up a vase, and examined it. Then he threw it at the wall with all the passion of his half-millenium long relationship with Reginald. It shattered into a hundred pieces that fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces. Allison sat down next to him, unfazed, and poured their drinks.

“I’ve done that before, myself.” she said, handing him a glass. “It’ll be back on this table tomorrow.”

“Son of a bitch…” Klaus said, sipping his drink and wincing as it burned his throat. He took a bigger sip.

“Yeah, that’s kind of how things work around here.” She put the bottle down, and leaned back on the couch. Drink in hand, eyes closed.

“But on the bright side,” she added. “All the alcohol will also be back tomorrow, too.”

“ _ Oh _ !” Klaus exclaimed, moving his voice up and down to get another laugh out of Allison. 

She looked at him, her eyes shining with a deep sadness. 

“So,” she said, taking a sip from her glass and then setting it down. “I’m sorry you had to hear me and Diego fight like that. I just want you to know that I’m all here for you. So is Diego.”

Klaus took her hand, but didn’t say anything for a while. He just looked around at their old living room, as beautiful and as daunting as ever. 

“Can I ask about…” she trailed off and gestured to him, looking him up and down. “The uniform?”

“Ah,” excitement bubbled up in him as he realized he might finally be able to take the goddamn thing off. He slid his jacket off and tossed it behind him, already feeling better that he was in a tank top.

“I mean, it rocks!” she said, shrugging.

“Oh yeah?” he said, an idea dawning on him as he eyed her red blouse and leather pants. “Would you want to trade for the day?”

Allison pressed her lips together, and closely examined his uniform. 

“Hm,” she sighed. “How bad does it smell?”

She leaned her nose into Klaus’s shoulder and giggled. He burst out laughing, surprising himself with his own volume.

“Okay,” she said, pulling back. “Let’s do it!”

After they had swapped clothing, Klaus tied the unbuttoned blouse into a knot at his stomach and let the rest hang open. Allison adjusted the straps of the tanktop that fit her surprisingly well. Maybe not surprisingly. She was Allison Hargreeves, after all. He looked at her carefully, before he spoke.

“So,” he said, slowly. “What happened between you and Diego? I mean, there was always some friction between you two when we were alive… but it seems to have really blown up in these past few centuries.”

Allison grimaced, and raised her eyebrows.

“I mean…” he continued. “It’s like you’ve gone from ‘Fellini’ to  _ Richard III. _ ”

“Hey!” She said with a smile, but that deep sadness had returned to her eyes. “ _ 8 ½  _ was pretty intense! Besides, I’m not so sure that analogy checks out.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Apples and oranges.”

“Well now you just sound like dad.” He smiled challengingly.

Allison burst into laughter, already feeling the whiskey.

“Don’t you ever-” she giggled, pushing him playfully. 

“Besides,” she said, tears gathering in her tired eyes, giggles finding her every ten seconds. “Dad would never say ‘apples and oranges.’”

“That’s what you think!” Klaus shouted, and put on his best impression of Reginald.

“Nonsense children! You know better than to compare Fellini to Shakespeare! Apples and oranges!”

Allison burst out laughing, and gasped loudly to try to catch her breath as tears streamed from her eyes.

“What are you laughing at Number 3? Apples and oranges, I say! The two most opposing fruits!”

She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, as she desperately tried to take a breath between bouts of laughter. Klaus giggled at the sight of his sister, who was always so serious, especially these days. 

When she finally calmed down enough to take a breath, she squeezed Klaus’s shoulder and smiled at him.

“God, I’ve missed you.”

Those words sobered them both up almost immediately. They sat there in silence, looking around the big room.

Suddenly, Five appeared in a flash of light. His hair was tousled, and his eyes were wild. His suit even had a button undone.

“Family meeting!” he shouted, looking around the room, wildly. “Where the fuck are Vanya and Luther?”

“Um,” Allison furrowed her eyebrows and stared at her brother. He looked as if he had just had a run in with a bear. 

“I don’t - I don’t know. Luther said he needed help with something and took Vanya with him.”

Five gritted his teeth and raked his hand through his hair.

“Fine!” he shouted. “Five minutes. Be ready for a family meeting in five minutes!”

“Um, Five?” Klaus said, squinting. His vision was beginning to blur a little as he noticed himself getting tipsy.

“What?” Five said, widening his eyes, as if even the sound of his own name was enough to piss him off.

“Are you okay?” Klaus asked softly, setting his glass down.

“No!” Five screamed, and disappeared in a crackle of blue light.

“Is it bad that I feel like that didn’t faze me at all?” Allison laughed, clearly over her moment of sobriety. “Like, I feel like shit like that happened just about everyday when we were kids.”

Well, that was hard to argue with. Still, Klaus found it a little hard to laugh when his soul was on the line, but he laughed anyway. He laughed deeply, and tried to feel every ounce of joy that this moment brought him. Because he knew his family too well, and something about the tone of Five’s voice and that wild look in his eyes told Klaus that he might never get another moment like this one. So he laughed and laughed and laughed with Allison, feeling all of the catharsis of a well-needed cry.


	3. We're Not Really Here

**Part 3:** We’re Not Really Here

**Pittsburg, Nowhere in Time**

Luther had thought he understood what was going on, he really did. But as he stood in front of their house, arguing with Vanya over the best way to find dad, he felt a surge of panic as the severity of the situation really sunk in.

“I mean…” He sighed, frustrated, as he looked around at his surroundings. “This place technically doesn’t exist inside the bounds of time. So, where would that put dad?”

Vanya looked up at Luther with an intense curiosity.

“I don’t understand why you’re so sure that dad  _ is _ here,” she said, scratching the back of her neck and freezing as her eye caught something in the distance.

Luther followed her gaze to the edge of the property, and stopped. There was a row of trees there, swaying in the breeze, the leaves shaded a dark, healthy green. There wasn’t anything remarkable about them, they were just trees, - except the few at the end had been dead for as long as Luther could remember. At some point when they were kids, he remembered Vanya sobbing on the entryway staircase as big trucks pulled up to the sidewalk, preparing to chop down the dead trees. He couldn’t remember how old they were then, but he remembered Five comforting Vanya, so they must have been pretty young. All that remained of the trees was a couple of thin stumps that Reginald never bothered to clean up. Still, even before then, he had no memory of the trees blooming and bursting with life.

“That’s gotta mean something.” He said as he turned towards her. She looked up at him with surprised eyes, the gears in her mind already turning.

“Yeah! Okay.” She nodded, eyes lit up in thought. “Maybe if we can pinpoint exactly what time period this place is modeled after, then we could figure out where dad is!”

“Okay…” Luther looked around, not sure where to start, his gears turning slightly slower than Vanya’s. “Are there any monuments we could go to..?”

  
“No,” Vanya said without hesitation. “No, we don’t have the time.”

She sighed and started down the sidewalk without a word. Luther looked back at the trees, then at Vanya, and hurried to catch up with her. She was a woman on a mission, her dark eyes glowing with an intensity he had rarely seen in her in their youth. It reminded him of how she looked when she played a particularly intense solo on her violin. 

But before Vanya and Luther could get very far, a figure appeared on the sidewalk in front of them. This was odd, especially because everything around them was abandoned. This purgatory was just for the Hargreeves.

But he could see that the figure shimmering into existence before them wasn’t entirely human. He was facing the opposite direction, hunched over, and clad in a dark hood like some villain from a gothic novel.

Luther hung back for a moment, hesitant to approach the sketchy figure, but Vanya sped up.

“ _ Vanya!”  _ he hissed, gritting his teeth and throwing his head back to indicate that they should turn around.

She shrugged and continued to approach the strange being. He looked like a wraith at this distance, with his long, dark, robes flowing all around him, a wrist that looked as if it had not seen the sun in two-thousand years poking out. But when he turned around, Luther didn’t know what to make of him.

“Excuse me!” Vanya called to him, causing the figure to jump away, like a spooked black cat.

_ “Who’s there?” _ he snarled, peering out at Vanya from under his hood. The man looked no older than thirty-five, but at first glance he looked to be at least sixty. His forehead was scrunched up into strained wrinkles, and his face was screwed into a perpetual scowl. His eyes looked young and old only once, and the spine that held him up was curled into a hook-shape. Vanya seemed unfazed by the man’s appearance, but Luther wasn’t so sure. If this place was supposed to be down the street from paradise, why did this man look like he had lived a thousand hard years?

“Oh, I-” Vanya stuttered, stepping back for a moment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. My name is-”

“Yes, yes,” the figure whined, waving her away. “You’re Vanya Hargreeves, you’re here for you brother, Klaus Hargreeves. This is your other brother, Luther.”

He scowled more intensely at Luther, giving him a flare in his wild eyes. His voice sounded high and unsteady, as if he were on the brink of a cackle. 

“Well,” Luther said, a sudden surge of brotherly protectiveness taking over his former hesitation. “Who are you?”

“Vergil. I assist Her in special matters such as this one. I will be here to assist your family in any way you see fit.”

He then leaned in closer, and Luther could smell the pungent yet mild scent of death on him.

“-Wayward or otherwise.” 

“Great!” Vanya squeaked, likely not picking up Vergil’s full meaning. “Can you help us with something?”

“That is what I’m here for.” Vergil threw back his hood, revealing a head of mousy brown hair that was just beginning to thin.

“We’re trying to find our father here,” Vanya began, strangely conversational considering who they were talking to. “We think he could help with the case, but we’ve no idea where he is.”

“He’s not here.” Vergil said, extending one arm to gesture at the empty streets and buildings. “And unfortunately, I cannot take you outside of this realm.”

“You can’t leave this realm?” Luther asked, surprised. After all, he had entered this one right in front of their eyes.

“No, monkey man!” Vergil shrieked, causing the siblings to jump back. “I can go anywhere that exists at all, but I cannot take you outside of this one.”

“So that’s it?” Vanya demanded, her words short and harsh. “We’re allowed to use our resources, except there are no resources? Great, that’s fucking fair.”

“Silence, girl.” Vergil said, his voice ringing at a pitch that was closer to average. “I can take you to see your father, just not outside of this realm.”

“But what does that mean?” Luther squinted, wondering if this was some sort of sick joke to slow them down.

“I cannot tell you that!” Vergil cried. “Because otherwise it could be interpreted as me suggesting to you, and that I am not allowed to do. You must be specific in your questions.”

“But we can’t leave here?” Vanya looked him in the eye, her eyes lightening as her frustration brewed her powers.

Vergil met her gaze with challenging eyes. If he knew what she was and what she could do, he didn’t let on.

Luther leaned towards his sister and whispered to her, despite being just as close to Vergil.

“ _ Psst. Vanya! _ ” He whispered loudly, snapping her out of her trance, her eyes settling back to their dark color.

Vergil shifted his robes and sighed deeply, forcing the exhale as if frustrated.

“Let me see if I can be clearer,” Vergil said slowly, his nasally voice sounding like a sneer, though he was being genuine. “Maybe try being more vague. Ask the question simply.”  
“Uh, okay,” Luther began. “Will you please take us to our father?”

“NO!” Vergil shrieked, throwing his head back in a fit of melodrama. “You’re asking the wrong question!”

“Okay, okay!” Luther looked at Vanya uncomfortably, before turning back to Vergil. “Could you please take us to a - a person we know?”

Vergil didn’t reply, but glared at Luther from under his brow, his lips stretched into a straight line. He let out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a growl. Then he turned to Vanya.

“Well,” she said, looking at him carefully. “Can I ask...why can't you take us to our father?”

“Yes, you may ask that.” Vergil sighed aggressively. “Because, your father doesn’t exist here. On this plane of existence, or  _ at this point in time.” _

“At this point in time?” Luther repeated, exchanging a look with Vanya. “You mean like, time travel?”

Vergil threw his head back and groaned loudly, expressing his irritation at full volume.

“Do you have the brain of a monkey, too?” Vergil snarled, as Vanya whipped her head around to glare at him.

“Don’t fucking talk to my brother like that!” She shouted, and Vergil got quiet. His mouth a horseshoe of inexpressible disappointment.

She turned to Luther.

“This is great, let’s go back to when we were children!”

“Okay,” Luther nodded, deciding to let Vanya take the lead on this. “Pick a year.”

Vanya looked at Vergil, a resentful grin breaking out across her face. 

“2001.”

-

Allison tapped her nails on her glass as she looked at Klaus mischievously.

“Okay,” she grinned. “It’s my turn to ask you something.”

Klaus swallowed hard, and put his glass back down on the coffee table. He flashed her a challenging smile, and swung one elbow over the side of the couch.

“Fire away!” 

“Okay,” she nodded, suddenly seeming very sober, and put her glass down next to his. She looked him in the eye for a moment before speaking, and he had to resist the urge to flinch a way.

“Before you were fully conscious,” she said, inching closer to him and lowering her voice. “You called out for someone. Someone named Dave.”

“Yes,” he said sadly, suddenly tired from the alcohol. It felt like four am on New Year’s Day. All the big, fun parties were over, and that feeling of immortality - real immortality - was beginning to wear off. All that he would be left with was messy decorations, a hangover, and some person in bed that he didn’t particularly feel like sleeping with anymore. “I’m sure I did.”

“Who is that?” Allison asked, the sincerity in her eyes so raw, that he had to look away.

“I think I told you about that soldier I fell in love with in the sixties?"

“Uh,” Allison furrowed her eyebrows and looked at the floor. “Yeah, I mean, it’s been a long time, but I think I remember that-”  
She broke off and pulled at the waistband of the uniform she wore.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding, were you?” She said dryly.

Klaus shook his head, sadly, and met her eyes. He suddenly felt like crying. Or maybe laughing at the absurdity of it all, or going back to Earth just to spite Her for giving their family such fucked up lives. Or maybe he just wanted sleep, he wasn’t sure. But the party was over, and he didn’t feel any differently this year. Even though secretly, every New Year’s he hoped he would.

“He was stuck on Earth with me,” he explained in a soft voice, and Allison listened with the attention of someone finding out how to turn back time. “I think it was my fault. I think he was being punished for loving me.”

Klaus inhaled deeply and then slowly exhaled, trying to steady his shaking voice.

“But - that’s impossible,” Allison shook her head in disbelief, and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think She’s incredibly spiteful or anything. I mean, you heard Her, She doesn’t even really care about any of this…”

“I don’t know…” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. “I don’t know what else to think.”

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Klaus knew Allison was looking at him, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze. Finally she took both of his hands in her’s, and he was forced to meet her eyes. He trembled slightly at the fierce sincerity in her gaze.

“I promise you,” she said announciating every syllable. “That we will fight just as hard for Dave as we will for you.”

Klaus nodded enthusiastically, wiping at the tears brimming in his eyes, determined not to let them spill over. Looking into Allison’s fiercely caring eyes, he wanted to cry to her, wrap his arms around her, tell her everything. Throw his cards on the table and start all over again. And for a moment, he really thought he would. He really thought he would.

But then the moment passed, and Allison let go of Klaus’s hands and picked her drink back up. The echo of heavy boots clamoring down the staircase drew her attention to the door. But Klaus looked at her sadly for another moment still. And he felt fear strike him down to his very core at the thought of what would come next.

_ Breathe, Number Four.  _ Reginald’s voice rang through his head, causing him to curl his fingers and shudder in repulsion.  _ Breath. _

Diego burst through the door, a nervous Ben at his heels. He threw the folder onto the coffee table in front of them, and leaned his palms on the table as well. He leaned down at them with a sneering care. And Klaus could see the desperation in his eyes.

“What the fuck is this?” he demanded, breathing through gritted teeth. 

Klaus slid the folder towards him, and picked it up. Within seconds he dropped it, as if it were too hot to touch, and sighed.

“For fuck’s sake!” he groaned, as Allison reached for the folder. But Diego snatched it back first.

“What is it?” Allison asked bitterly, glaring at Diego. 

Diego opened the file and cleared his throat, grimacing at the contents.

“ _ Misdoings of Klaus Hargreeves _ ,” he began, and spat each word like it left a bad taste in his mouth. “Unironically claimed to have the power of God and Anime on his side; Led a cult under known fraudery; Swore not to enter heaven until he saw Katy Perry in concert at least three times-”

Klaus rolled his head and looked at Allison.

“ _ Twice,”  _ he mouthed.

Diego glared at Klaus over the edge of the folder before he continued down the list.

“Did unholy acts due to a non-sexual bedroom poster that caused an unnatural level of arousal - what the fuck does that even mean, Klaus?”

Ben groaned and caught his forehead in the palm of his hand.

Finally, he looked up and sighed.

“Sonny and Cher..?” he asked quietly. His eyes were closed, but somehow Klaus still felt his glaring with disapproval.

Klaus grinned and shrugged.

“Ugh!” Diego exclaimed in disgust, as Ben opened his eyes to actually glare at Klaus now.

“I am so glad that poster burned to ashes when we were fifteen!” he cried, like that made any difference.

Klaus grinned wider and raised his eyebrows, prompting a curious look from Diego.

“It did burn up,” Diego said, lowering the folder from his face. “Didn’t it?”

“Well,” Klaus chuckled, leaning back on the couch. “Most of it did.”

He tapped a finger to his Temple, then pointed it at Ben.

Ben’s face wrinkled up in horror and repulsion.

“ _ NO…” _ he hissed.

Diego looked back at Ben and then back at the folder.

“Did unholy acts because of some of the remains of the poster...e.g. The Mustache.”

Allison whipped around to look at him for the first time since their brothers had crashed the party.

“What the hell, Klaus?” She demanded, crossing her arms disapprovingly.

“I’m afraid to ask what that means..?” Diego looked up and grimaced.

“Oh!” Klaus exclaimed like he couldn’t believe Diego didn’t know the context. “Surely you remember the iconic 1960’s hippie-singing duo Sonny and Cher?”

“-No.”

“-And you know how Sonny had that mustache?”

“-I’ve heard enough!” Allison cut in, quieting her brothers.

Diego looked up at Allison with an uneasy expression, and he paused before he spoke.

“Yeah, well,” he scoffed. “That’s one thing you and I can agree on.”

“Would anyone like a drink?” Klaus asked, feeling the familiar ache for alcohol in his chest. There’s nothing quite like downing a glass of whiskey to send every problem far, far away.

“Yes.” Diego said surely, as a flash of blue light appeared in the room. Five stood in front of them, clutching the book She gave him tightly.

“-I’m done listening to you talk about how you’re in hell because you get off on some dude’s mustache.”

Five opened his mouth to speak, then shot Diego a questioning look. Diego responded by downing as much whiskey as he could possibly manage all at once. Five shook his head, deciding that it was probably better not to ask.

“I’ll be right back,” Five said, and a clatter from the kitchen told them where he had gone.

“I’m scarred from that,” Diego said, pointing to the folder in Klaus’s hand, it’s contents now scattered across the floor. “I always knew you had a thing for facial hair, but I thought you were just teasing me because I can’t grow any!”

Klaus grinned at Diego mischievously, and Ben smirked at their brother who had now taken out a knife. Allison tried really hard not to laugh, but her amusement came in the form of a snort.

“Problem, Allison?” Diego demanded, and Allison quickly shook her head and sobered up immediately.

“Don’t worry,” she said to Klaus, taking the heat off of herself. “We’re going to cut your ties to earth, if we have to  _ kill _ to get you away.”

“Whoa, Allison,” Diego piped up again, sprawling out on the opposite couch. “Maybe  _ you _ should be the one in hell.”

“Klaus is  _ not  _ in hell, asshole!” Allison shrieked, startling Klaus and Ben. Diego sat up and pointed his knife at his sister like an accusatory finger. 

“Yeah, well-”

“Family meeting in five,” Ben repeated, hoping to shut them up.

“ _ In _ Five?” Klaus smirked.

“In five  _ minutes _ !” Ben shouted over the bickering of Allison and Diego, glaring at his brother with an expression somewhere between horror and disgust.

“UGGGHHHH!” Allison growled, getting to her feet.

“Oh, you’re gonna scream at me?” Diego snapped. “Two can play at that game!” 

A sound that could only be described as the last cry of a dying pterodactyl rang through the room. Klaus burst into laughter and clapped his hands, then pointing at Diego.

“ _ Oh my god _ !” he said, tears gathering in his eyes from laughing too hard. Diego threw his knife at Klaus, and it plunged into the sofa behind him, missing Klaus by the skin of his teeth.

“Will you ever just  _ stop _ ?” Allison shrieked, jumping to her feet and balling her hands in frustration.

“No, no I won’t.” Diego said matter-of-factly, taking out another knife and sticking it into the sofa beside him. Klaus watched, mesmerized as the hilt of the knife slowly dragged through the cushion, tearing it open like flesh.

“What the hell, Diego?” Ben groaned, gesturing to the cushion that had nearly been torn cleanly in two.

“It’s okay,” Klaus said, eyes still on the feathers drifting and swirling around the air like stirred-up dust. “It’ll be back to the way it was when you wake up tomorrow.”

Ben sighed loudly, but Klaus could see that he was relieved. He briefly wondered why.

“It’s been a long time, Diego,” Allison said, her voice hoarse. Klaus could see for the first time that there were dark circles under her eyes. 

“The whole family is back together for the first time in a long time. Can’t we just...move on?”

The knife trailing through the sofa stopped abruptly, as Diego slowly sat up and leaned forwards. He clasped his hands together as if in prayer, and looked at Allison for a moment before speaking.

“I swore to make your afterlife  _ hell,  _ and I plan to keep doing so. I’ll move on when you  _ fade away....” _

Allison dropped her hands and relaxed them. Her posture instantly straightened, and there was a shining, burning look in her eyes. Diego smiled, but the only thing behind it was pure rage. The type of boiling anger that can only come from deep, deep betrayal.

“I heard a rumour…”

Allison began, her eyes seeming to glow in the midday light, her voice a low growl. Diego’s smile began to fade and for a second something else flickered in his eyes.

_ Fear? _

“I heard a rumour...that you can’t talk.” Allison held out the last word as if she wanted to remember it. Make the moment last.

Diego snapped forward and was on his feet in seconds. His jaw was agape, as if he intended to scream at her, tell her off, protest. But nothing came out, nothing that resembled any sort of talking at all.

Klaus hiccuped as laughter bubbled up inside him. Soon he was giggling and cackling in a cruel amusement at the sight of his brother attempting to force his body to obey him. Diego stood, glaring at Allison, with his head bowed and his fists balled up like a child.

Five reappeared in a flash of blue, a mug in his hand now.

“Okay-” he said, looking around at his siblings, and sighing at the various expressions on their faces that said,

_ There’s clearly been a problem here! We can’t be left alone for two seconds without you, Five! _

“Are we ready..?”

“Diego,” Klaus called, leaning forward to put down his glass. “Remember when everyone in your junior...police club thing thought you pissed yourself?”

Diego turned his head slowly and looked down at Klaus.

“I told them that!” Klaus erupted into laughter, hysterical that Diego couldn’t defend himself. Diego was across the room in seconds, lunging at Klaus. Klaus screamed, and threw a handful of papers at him. Diego swatted them away, and grabbed Klaus’s legs. Klaus tried to crawl away, his stomach flat on the floor, propelling himself forward with his elbows. But Diego grabbed a fistful of his brother’s colourful blouse, before grabbing his hair with the other hand, and yanking his head back.

“OWWWEEEE!” Klaus screamed, throwing weak slaps back in Diego’s general direction.

Five tapped his foot impatiently as Ben took a seat, sighing.

“Guys,” Ben groaned, but neither of his brothers were listening.

Diego roughly grabbed Klaus’s shoulder, and flipped him onto his back before pinning him to the carpet.

“Well, Diego,” Klaus sighed with a mischievous smile. “If I knew it was going to be like this, I would’ve told you  _ ages _ ago.”

He eyed Diego’s athletic figure with a hunger in his eyes. Diego sighed heavily, and rolled his eyes. He shook his head furiously to snap back into his rage, and then slapped Klaus in the face. This was enough to spring Allison into action.

“That’s enough!” She cried. “Diego, you can speak, just get  _ off  _ of him!”

Diego shot up and stared at her with round, warning eyes, Klaus still squirming beneath him.

“Oh, uh-” Allison held her hand to her head and made a circular motion like she was trying to remember.

“-I heard a rumour that you got your voice back.”

Diego inhaled loudly like he hadn’t been able to breath that whole time, and fell back onto the couch. Diego eyed Allison warily, as Klaus writhed dramatically on the floor. 

“I’ve been in heaven for like, an hour,” he groaned, throwing an arm limply into the air for effect. “And I’ve been slapped four times!” 

“Yeah, well,” Allison sucked her teeth and looked at Diego. “You kind of deserved it, Klaus.”

Diego let out a dry chuckle without ever taking his eyes off of Allison.

“Klaus, get up.” He said impatiently, snapping his fingers.

Klaus merely replied with a louder groan and laid flat on the floor. “You couldn’t even slap my other cheek?”

“Diego. Fix this!” Five snapped impatiently. Diego rolled his eyes, before standing and grabbing one of Klaus’s ankles.

“How’s the coffee?” Diego asked, dragging Klaus to the couch.

Five took a long drink, tilting the mug back to make sure he swallowed all of the remaining contents. 

“It’s vodka.” He replied, slamming the mug on the table. 

“Still no sign of Luther or Vanya?” he demanded, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and looking out at the room before him.

“Nope,” Diego sighed, stopping Klaus at the foot of the couch, and dropping his ankle so that his heel crashed to the ground.

“ _ OWWWW _ !” Klaus yelled again, a whine to his voice that grinded on Diego’s ears.

Five dropped his head and let out a loud sigh of frustration.

“Okay…” Five said, looking back up at his siblings. He ran his fingers anxiously through his hair, locking eyes with Ben, who gave him a subtle nod. “We’ll have to start without them.”

He held up the book and slowly moved it from the left to the right so that all of his siblings could see.

“ _ This _ is a guide to entering a soul’s memories.”

He kicked some of the papers and feathers out of his way, and continued.

“From my understanding, we have to go to major points in Klaus’s life, and somehow  _ fix _ them without interfering.”

“Without interfering?” Diego snorted, taking the knife out of the sofa at last. “How does that work?”

“I admit, I’m not sure.” Five said, not batting an eyelash at the ruined sofa. “We’ll just have to try it. Do you agree with this plan, Klaus?”

Klaus was still lying on the floor, but raised an arm to give a thumbs up.

“Fantastic. So, we have to see some of the memories that made you turn for the worst. So, you’ll have to think of your biggest fuck-ups.”

“Wait…” Klaus said, sitting up and suddenly sober. “No, no, no, no, no. You do  _ not _ want to see my worst memories.”

He laughed dryly, looking around at his siblings.

“No we don’t Klaus, and I know you have a lot to choose from.” Five said carefully, despite the urgency that fueled his anxiety. “But we have very little time and options here. So I was thinking we’ll go in two at a time. So no one is alone in that dark, disturbing thing you call a brain, but your mind isn’t overcrowded-”

“Five…” Klaus said sternly, slightly shaking his head. “ _ No _ .”

Five stared down at him for a moment, tapping his fingers on the cover of the book, thinking. 

“Klaus…” Allison began, reaching for the proper words. She recognized both the delicacy and urgency of the situation. “We need you to trust us. We know some things have happened in your lifetime that you’re...less than proud of. But we have very little time, so you have to trust us now…”

She hesitated, and met Diego’s eyes. And for just a moment, he didn’t look angry. Guarded, but not hateful.

“We  _ love  _ you.” She said quietly, her voice going soft with emphasis on the word “love.” “No matter what.”

Klaus shook his head sadly, a deep, grounded pain in his eyes that his siblings barely recognized.

“Oh, Allison…” his voice was barely more than a whisper. “You don’t know half of it.”

He held his sister’s gaze for a while as she searched for words that never came. He wanted to take her hands and tell her it was okay. He wanted to thank Ben, hug Five, and tell Diego that he was loved. He wanted Luther and Vanya back here so that he could spend the next few hours with his siblings before he lost them forever. One final day doing all the things that they didn’t get to do when they were kids. Maybe if he told them that there was no hope, then they could all make up for five-hundred years of sibling bonding and family love in one day. And then he could return to earth knowing that he had done everything he wanted to. No regrets.

But in the next few hours, he wanted them to see the best of him, not the worst. He wanted them to know him for who he was, not who he used to be. 

“That was touching.” Diego said mockingly as he tossed his knife into the air.

Allison blinked as she came back to reality, and shot a look of hatred at Diego.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You have a better idea! Of course you do, Number Two!”

“Stop it. Stop it both of you.” Klaus raised a hand to silence them as Diego began to shout something back to her. He turned to Five, who stood looking down at him with his eyebrows raised.

“You said you want to do teams of two?”

Five nodded, looking at the floor and putting his hands in his pockets.

“Okay,” Klaus pointed a finger at Allison, and another at Diego. “They’re going to do this together.”

“No.” Diego said before the words were out of Klaus’s mouth. “Absolutely not.”

“I think we should…” Allison said in a taunting tone of voice. “Sibling bonding.”

“That sounds good to me,” Ben said, leaning back. “I’ve seen enough of Klaus’s weird life to last an eternity. I don’t need to see more.”

“Then it’s settled,” Five nodded, turning back towards Klaus. “Diego and Allison.”

Diego groaned.

“Okay, Klaus.” Five said, and clapped his hands once to draw the attention to himself. “You need to sit on the couch. Yes, just like that. Diego, Allison, you need to each take one of my hands and press your free hand to the side of Klaus’s face. Take my hand, Diego. Diego, take my hand.  _ Diego- _ ” Five hissed through gritted teeth.

Diego rolled his eyes and huffed in exasperation before finally taking his brother’s hand.

“Okay…” Five whispered, and began softly chanting in a language that shockingly, none of them were familiar with.

“Jbkjh. Huwehuh. Sjafbshbhf.”

_ Those aren’t words... _ Allison thought. It sounded to her as if someone had just hit random letters on their keyboard and hoped it sounded like a language.

The furniture in the room began to look warped and faded. The dark colour palette began to blur together, as the furniture became shapeless. And then everything became clear again, just as quickly as it had faded to black. Except Allison and Diego weren’t in the living room anymore. 

**Vietnam, the year 1968.**

Allison was in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by tall, arching trees. There were various poles placed seemingly at random all around, with sheets hanging to form make-shift tents. A group of men walked past them, in camouflage from head to toe, their rifles slung casually on their shoulders. One soldier walked  _ through _ Allison, sending a shiver down her spine.

“What the hell…” Diego muttered looking at the dark sky that was just starting to lighten. “Where the fuck are we?”

Allison shook her head and looked around. 

“Maybe he got sucked into the war when we were in the 1960’s?” Allison shrugged. It sounded implausible, even to her.

“No. Something must’ve gone wrong.”

“Well,” Allison studied the makeshift tents. “There’s only one way we’ll find out. If this is right, then Klaus has to be somewhere around here.”

She turned away abruptly, not wanting Diego to see her watering eyes. This was the first ordinary conversation she’d had with her brother since they died. Her heart ached, and she felt the sudden urge to hug him. She didn’t act on it, of course. Diego fought affection even on a good day. But her chest hurt with the longing to put everything to rest. 

_ I’ll lay down my arms, if you lay down yours. _

Allison sighed, and knew what she knew. She was the one who had colossally fucked up, so Diego was the one who would decide what terms they were on at any given moment.

She peeked behind every hanging sheet in the camp. Most of them were empty, with cots and hand-sewn mattresses placed in the grass to resemble some sort of home. She’d see the occasional soldier behind the sheets, writing a letter to a loved one or still fast asleep. Men talked among themselves and dressed themselves, in preparation for the day ahead. Allison looked back at Diego, who was a little ways behind her checking the face of every soldier who passed by. 

Allison stopped as she caught sight of a sheet waving like a flag in the breeze on the edge of the clearing. It was sheltered underneath the arching branches that headed the forest, a dash of colour catching her eye. She saw pink dots at the top of the sheet.

Allison motioned to Diego, before hurrying in that direction. As she got closer, she could see the pink dots evolve into  _ flowers _ sticking out of the sides of the pole. She had broken into a full sprint by now, and Diego hurried to catch up with her. She went around the side of the tent and peered through the side, and flinched in surprise.

In front of her was a man’s bare ass, and she moved back, scrunching up her face.

“What is it?” Diego whispered, nearly colliding with her as he skidded to a halt in the grass. Allison let out a squeal, but quickly covered her mouth.

Diego turned away, disgusted.

“Ughhhh…” he groaned.

The man leaned forward, causing Diego to turn around, one hand behind him as if to illustrate the distance between the naked man and himself.

“Well…” Allison giggled, covering her mouth with her hands again.

“That’s not Klaus’s ass!” Diego whispered loudly, pointing his knife in the direction of the nude man. “Trust me, I would know!”

The man slipped into some boxers, then the same camouflage pants as everyone else. Diego sighed dramatically in relief.

“Thank  _ god.” _ He hissed, rolling his eyes.

Allison tried to suppress her laughter, but trying to suppress it made her giggle harder.

“What?” Diego demanded, looking at her skeptically like he had never seen her laugh before, and didn’t trust it.”

“You’re a child!” She cried, covering her mouth again as her voice cracked with laughter.

“ _ I’m  _ a child?” Diego smiled, momentarily forgetting his anger in the absurdity of the situation. “ _ You’re  _ the one laughing like a kid at a magic show.”

Allison burst out laughing now, snorting and chuckling. Diego sighed, and looked back in the tent.

A shadowy figure sat up in bed, and Diego froze. “ _ Klaus! _ ”

Their brother was rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and squinting through the dark.

“Do you hear... _ laughter? _ ” He asked, looking lazily at the now fully-dressed man.

“Oh  _ fuck! _ ” Diego whispered, suddenly crouching. He grabbed Allison’s shoulder and hid behind the shrubbery.

“He can  _ hear  _ us?” Allison asked as she peaked over the bushes.

“I don’t know…” Diego said under his breath.

“Laughing? Here? In Hell’s Asshole? It’s not likely.” The man smiled at Klaus, and Klaus grinned back.

Their brother sat all the way up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He stretched slowly, and then grimaced. 

“How’s your back?” The other man grinned wider.

Klaus put on a mock-serious face, and leaned forward.

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s a little sore but I’m good for the day.”

“Aw,” the other man snickered. “That’s too bad.”

“Why don’t you come back here and change that?”

The man threw down his jacket and was on top of Klaus in seconds.

Allison made a gagging noise, and Diego snorted, throwing his own hand over her face this time to shut her up.

“Why am I not surprised?” Diego groaned with a smirk, as Klaus took off the shirt that the man had just on.

“This is weird..” Allison said, turning to Diego. “Should we like, look away?”

Before Diego had time to answer, the sheet was pulled back abruptly and the big silhouette of a man stood in its place. The bed-bound couple sprung away from each other, Klaus pulling the bed sheets to cover his naked body.

“Katz! Hargreeves! What in god's name do you think you’re doing?” The man shouted. 

The other man, Katz, fumbled for his shirt and jacket, before standing up unnaturally straight.

The man scanned the scene with scathing eyes that filled Katz with shame and Klaus with resentment.

“We-I-I mean….”

“Save it, Katz.” The man raised a hand and shook his head.

“Sorry, sir…” Katz said quietly, and looked at the floor.

“I’m really disappointed in you, Dave.” 

Allison gasped.  _ Dave? _

“I’m sorry sir…” Dave looked around at the ground slowly, his eyes searching around the small space.

Klaus reached over the side of the bed and handed a helmet to Dave. Dave grabbed it without looking at Klaus and hurried away, scrambling past the man as he headed towards where the other marines were already gathered.

The man stood solid in front of the sheet, staring down at their brother with glaring disgust. Klaus held his gaze, but Allison could see him swallow hard.

“Hargreeves…” the man said as if he were really thinking about it, and paced slowly around the edge of the poles.

“Lieutenant Milcom...” Klaus said unsurely, clutching the bed sheets closer to his body.

The Lieutenant sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh, bouncing his rifle between his knees. Klaus inched towards the other end of the bed, as if trying to escape the man one inch at a time.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here, boy?” He asked sternly but quietly, fidgeting with the rifle.

Klaus looked around, as if he was looking to exchange a glance with someone who wasn’t there.

_ Is this guy out of his fucking mind?  _ His face said, but there was no one around to meet his furrowed gaze.

“I-”

“Look at me, boy…” the Lieutenant growled, and Klaus reluctantly obeyed.

Allison looked over at Diego, whose chin was raised, eyes trained on the scene in front of them like a cat ready to pounce. Allison slowly turned back, dreading whatever was coming next.

“I said -  _ what the hell do you think you’re doing? _ ” He said every word carefully in his heavy southern drawl, a quiet warning in every syllable.

“I...That’s kind of a loaded question,” Klaus chuckled nervously. “What am I doing here in  _ bed _ , what am I doing in this  _ war _ , what am I doing  _ now- _ ”

It happened so quickly, Allison wasn’t even sure  _ what _ had happened at first. Diego shot back down and looked at Allison, his eyes round, his jaw wide open.

Lieutenant Milcom had raised his gun, and hit Klaus across the face with it. There was a faint cracking sound, and then a guttural cry from their brother. It felt like it was happening somewhere far away and right in front of them all at once.

“ _ AGHHHH _ !” The force of the blow had knocked Klaus off of the bed, and he was now sprawled out on the floor. “What the  _ fuck?”  _ he whispered in a distorted voice as he stretched his jaw, and rapidly blinked his eyes as if he couldn’t see.

Allison gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in horror. She watched with total helplessness as the man took his time coming around the side of the bed. He looked casually around the tent as if he was on a quiet stroll, before looking down at Klaus with the hatred of a man who saw no sympathy or goodness in the one before him.

The Lieutenant Milcom raised the butt of the gun over Klaus again with no emotion, and brought it down squarely on his crotch.

Klaus really screamed this time, not in shock but in pain. The sound of it was so horrific, Allison’s stomach flipped. Diego grabbed her wrist and squeeze, and a burst of pain shot up her wrist. She didn’t push him away.

Diego sat down shakily and turned away with his back to the bush. 

“ _ What the fuck- _ ” he whispered, his voice shaking. “Where the fuck are we?”

Allison had gone cold, the sight unfolding before her too much to bear as Lieutenant Milcom raised his gun once again. 

Klaus was curled on the floor, with his bruised cheek on the ground, and his hands between his legs. He was totally oblivious of the man behind him. 

The Lieutenant brought the gun down across Klaus’s ribcage.

Allison had existed for the better half of a millennium, but the gagging sound her brother made as he tried desperately to drag some air back into his sore, aching lungs was by far the worst thing she’d ever heard.

It seemed that Diego agreed, because the sound was enough to get him on his feet in seconds. 

Allison whipped around and watched in a fascinated-horror as her brother bolted across the short patch of grass between the bushes and the tent, and raised his knife. He lunged at the Lieutenant Milcom, with the clear intention to kill...and went right through him, landing on the ground with a loud  _ thump! _

“ _ NOOO! _ ” Diego screamed as he watched helplessly as the man before him brought the gun down once again on his brother. Klaus writhed on the ground, as the man stood mercilessly over him. 

Allison took in a ragged breath at the sound of Diego’s scream. It was a scream that she had only heard once before, on the ground in front of her like he was now, while they were still alive. She let out a desperate sob, rubbing her wrist where Diego had grabbed her.

The Lieutenant got in one last blow before he lowered his gun. He looked at Klaus, a writhing mess on the ground before him, and leaned forward to get a better look. The man watched Klaus convulsing in the dirt, his eyes distant as he gasped with pain. The Sergeant closed his eyes and moaned deeply, his head tilting back with pleasure. Diego screamed again and tried to slash the man’s ankles as he walked away, but the knife went through him without leaving so much as a scratch.

As he walked away, Klaus turned over to look after him.

“You sadistic prick!” He sobbed, stopping the Lieutenant cold in his tracks. The man turned around and spat. Klaus screamed, furious. The man ducked under the sheet, and pulled it down after him, leaving Klaus exposed for anyone walking by to see. He hugged his stomach, groaning, and rolled over onto his side. 

Diego sat up and moved forward, putting him directly in Klaus’s line of view. He froze, as his brother wheezed and opened his eyes.

“Diego..?” he coughed weakly, wincing as blood dripped into his eye. “Is that you?”

He stared down at Klaus for a moment, stunned. What could he say? 

“It’s g-gonna-” Diego began, but the words were too tied up in his mouth. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Grace’s voice came to him, as it often did at times like these.

_ Just picture the word in your mind, Diego. _

“It’s gonna b-be okay, Kl-Klaus…” he said shakily as his brother closed his eyes and hugged his body tighter.

Allison stood up and waved anxiously to Diego. She had heard enough.

When Diego caught sight of her, he hurried away, disappearing into the woods and not stopping next to his sister. Allison whirled around and hurried after him, following him straight through the trees for a long time. Probably longer than necessary. When they were far enough away, Diego stopped and leaned forward, his hands on his knees. He was more out of breath than Allison had ever seen him.

“What...the... _ fuck _ .” Diego panted, looking at her through wild eyes.

Allison looked around at the jungle around them, at the tall trees that reached for the sky.

“I don’t know…” Allison whispered, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

_ Fuck, it’s hot,  _ She thought, her mind wandering. She was exhausted. She wanted nothing more now than to drink a gallon of water and then pass out on the comfy couch that Diego did  _ not  _ tear up.

“Why did you run over to that particular tent?” Diego said, and Allison was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice he’d spoken at first.

“What?”

“How did you know Klaus was in there?”

“Oh, um, I didn’t. But I saw the flowers hanging and it seemed like something Klaus would do.”

“Yeah,” Diego nodded, standing up straight again. “It’s very Klaus.”

Allison nodded, looking at her brother. Diego was looking at her from under his brow, his chin raised.

“You’re wearing a uniform,” Diego said, gesturing to the tank top and camouflage pants that Allison had forgotten she had on. 

“Oh, um…” she looked at her boots, nervous with the sudden slew of questions. “Klaus wanted to trade. I think I get why now.”

“And… why didn’t you help when our brother was attacked right in front of your eyes?” Diego clutched the hilt of his knife in his iron grip.

“It wouldn’t have made a difference…” Allison looked up at him and smiled sadly. “Not this time.”

Diego didn’t answer, but kept looking at her and maneuvering the knife between his fingers with a supernatural grace.

“Look, Diego-”

“Save it.” Diego said, sharply turning away from her and walking deeper into the woods, looking around at trees, trees, and more trees. “How do we get out of here?”

“I don’t think the memory is over yet!” Allison shouted after him, running to catch up.

“I’ve seen enough!” Diego snorted, blinking hard. “I’ve had enough of Klaus’s  _ fucked _ up life, and I’ve definitely had enough of  _ you _ !”

“Diego, stop.” Allison put a hand on her brother’s shoulder, and he pushed her away, but granted her his ears as he stopped walking to face her. 

“Klaus told me there was someone stuck in the apocalypse with him,” Allison said, looking up at Diego with hopeful eyes. “Someone named  _ Dave _ . Who he  _ loved _ .”

Diego searched her eyes for a moment, then shook his head vigorously.

“ _ What?” _ he demanded, stepping closer to his sister.

Allison nodded.

“He said he was worried that this ‘Dave’ was stuck there  _ because  _ of him.”

“That’s gotta be some sort of coincidence, right?” Diego said, furrowing his brows and starting up his knife-through-fingers habit again, this time with a little less grace.

Allison shook her head slowly.

“I don’t think so.”

Diego dropped his shoulder and the fire in his eyes subsided into something much softer. 

“Okay…” he nodded quietly, looking at her with the soft eyes she hadn’t seen in so long. If she didn’t know better, she’d say it was a look that resembled trust.

“Okay.” Allison said, the word sounding more like a question or confirmation than anything else. She quickly followed it up with:

“We  _ need  _ to figure out what we’re supposed to be doing here.”

Diego began to walk back to the camp, his knife slipping between his fingers like a dolphin over waves.

“It seems like Klaus can see us...but no one else can.”

“Maybe because we’re dead?” Allison suggested. “Or maybe it’s because we’re not really here.”

“I don’t know… but it doesn’t matter. If Klaus can see us, we need to focus on that.”

Allison nodded, spotting the poles that marked their brother’s tent ahead.

She looked through the trees to see Klaus almost fully dressed, pulling on his jacket, stiffly. He groaned and shuddered as he maneuvered his shoulders to pull the jacket over him. He stepped slowly and robotically across the small space that was now littered with flowers, and reached for his helmet. As he did so, he let out a cry, a hand flying to his bruised back. Allison could see blood dripping down the side of his face, sliding over his swollen and purple cheek. Finally, he succeeded in wrapping his fingers around the edge of the helmet, and he raised it to his head, straightening his posture with a shiver and a gasp. He then began the painfully slow journey to the place where the other soldiers were lining up. 

Allison followed her brother from the edge of the woods, with Diego close behind. Klaus looked like a tin man who was running out of oil; inching forward, swinging one leg out in front of the other without bending any limbs. He would stop occasionally, to breathe through some of the pain, and then kept on inching forward. Occasionally his eyes became glazed and distant, and Allison feared he would pass out. He did fall, once, his knees buckling under him and a hand flying to his chest. After a moment, he collected himself slowly, taking his time to fully rise, and kept pushing on.

Klaus  _ finally  _ reached the place where the rest of the men were lined up, a mixture of sweat and blood running from his forehead to his chin, and dripping lazily into the grass. He stood next to a wide-eyed Dave, staring with horror and immeasurable dread. Allison watched as Dave whispered something urgently to Klaus, and put an arm around his hunched shoulders. As soon as he did this, Klaus collapsed into his arms and Dave continued to hold him up, whispering sharply to him and searching for injuries.

“KATZ!” The Lieutenant screamed, interrupting himself in whatever he’d previously been talking about. Dave flinched, looking wildly up at Lieutenant Milcom, and holding up Klaus, who was too out-of-it to really notice.

“I- Sir, yes, Sir?” Dave shouted with what little confidence he could muster. 

“What do you think you’re  _ doing,  _ boy?”

He shifted Klaus in his arms, so that their brother’s head rested on the other man’s shoulder.

“I, uh, well-” Dave stuttered indistinguishably.

“Spit it out,  _ boy!” _ The Lieutenant screamed, stopping in front of Dave and Klaus. “Or you and Curly Sue will be responsible for emptying the  _ latrine  _ every day this week!”

This just made him stutter harder and then suddenly, he snapped.

“ _ BLOOD!” _ Dave shrieked, gestured at Klaus, who now had blood dripping down his damp neck and onto Dave’s shirt, staining his jacket with a deep red.

“Sir.” He added quietly.

“You’re soldiers!” Lieutenant Milcom screamed, inches from Dave’s face. “You  _ should  _ be able to fight through a little blood and some bruises!”

Allison watched the spit fly from the Lieutenant's yellowing teeth onto the face of Dave, who tried determinedly not to flinch.

“Yeah, but I think Klaus - uh, I mean  _ Hargreeves  _ is hurt bad, sir. Can I take him to the medic, please sir?”

Allison walked out into the open clearing, abruptly, hardly aware of her own sudden movements. Diego reached out for her, trying unsuccessfully to pull her back.

“The only person who can see us is Klaus,” Allison explained, jabbing a finger impatiently at where their brother was dangling limply in Dave’s arms. “And I don’t think he’ll notice us very much right now.”

She continued walking, without checking if Diego was following her. But a rustling of branches indicated that he was. Allison joined the tight circle cramming herself between the Lieutenant and Klaus, who was only half conscious and was muttering indistinctly to no one. 

“Listen boy,” The Lieutenant growled quietly. “I have put up with your…”

He gestured vaguely to Dave, recoiling a bit in disgust.

“-lifestyle, because you are an  _ excellent  _ soldier. But I warn you not to test my limits.”

“Please..” Dave whispered. “I mean look at him! He can’t even stand. How is he supposed to fight?.. Uh, sir?” 

The Lieutenant looked back at Dave with a cold fire in his eyes. For a moment, Allison thought he might hurt Dave the way he had hurt Klaus. She tensed in anticipation, forgetting that she would be helpless to fight him off. She braced herself, and heard Diego let out a sound similar to a growl behind her. But the Sergeant merely turned back to the group. 

“Alright,  _ ladies _ ,” Lieutenant Milcom barked to the men, who quickly turned to face the front as if they hadn’t been listening in.

“Katz is going to take Hargreeves to the medic, because he got his weak, little homo ass kicked.” The Lieutenant announced, circling his way back to the front of the group. 

“To make up for these two pussies,  _ you’re _ all going to do push ups until Katz is back.”

A whisper of hushed protests erupted from the soldiers, some of them casting glares over their shoulders at Dave. Others bared their teeth, and stomped their feet, reminding Allison more of animals than men.

Dave went pale, and he looked to the Lieutenant in horror.

“But he’s not even conscious!” Dave gasped, hugging Klaus to him. “And the medics are all the way across camp!”

“Then I guess you better hurry, boy.” The man said coldly, as he returned to the front of the crowd and blew the whistle. The men instantly fell to the ground, and began lifting themselves up and dropping back down on their hurting arms and shoulders. They were all sore, lonely, and desperate for a good night’s sleep, though they’d never admit this to one another. Instead they focused all of their bitterness into the up, down, up, down motion of the pushups, hoping the Lieutenant was watching if they were doing well and distracted if they weren’t.

Dave watched them briefly, looking halfway between mortified and sick, before snapping out of it.

“Okay…” Dave said quietly to himself more than to Klaus. “Okay, it’s gonna be okay.”

Dave turned around, and half-dragged a nearly unconscious Klaus to the medics, moving with an heir of urgency. Klaus still muttered deliriously under his breath and his eyes rolling around as sleep tried to take him.

But they didn’t get more than a few yards before Klaus doubled over and vomited on Dave’s shoes. They both stared down, Klaus in utter confusion about where he was and how he got there, Dave gagging lightly.

“ _ Diego _ ..?” Klaus said weakly, looking up at Dave. But Dave wasn’t paying attention. He was watching as Lieutenant Milcom approached, a look of total revulsion across his pink face. He looked at them how one might look at a dead rat in a trap. Body twisted in a grotesque position, teeth bared into a permanent scream. 

But when Lieutenant Milcom spoke, his voice was quiet like a fire crackling quietly on stone. He stopped just before the two men in front of them, looking at Dave’s boots, now slick with vomit.

“God cannot even stand the sight of you.” He said, looking up at Klaus, then Dave, then back at Klaus. Without another word, he turned and walked away. 

As Allison watched him, his figure became blurry, and he began to blend together with the soldiers. They formed a deep shade of green and the colour ran in with the trees like a paint splatter over a picture. The abrupt timing of being pulled out left her frantic and confused, as she ran to Klaus. But before she reached him, everything faded to black.


	4. The Death of a Damned Soul

**Part 4** : The Death of a Damned Soul

**Pittsburg, 2001**

Luther knew that something had changed, but everything looked the same. They were still on the sidewalk, a little ways down from their front door. Except everything was different. Brighter, bolder, lively. He looked down to the end of the block.

“Vanya, look!” he pointed, and she followed his gaze to the trees. There they were. Or, more like, there they weren’t. All that stood there were thin stumps that barely stood taller than the faded yellow grass.

Vanya didn’t speak immediately, she didn’t have to. There’s not many words out there that could do justice to the five hundred years of memories, longing, and fighting that brought them here now. Vanya smiled sadly, and wiped her teary eyes with her sleeve. She nodded, serious, like the tree stumps had told her of an important mission, and she was confirming that she could do it.

_ Yes, Captain Stump! I won’t let you down. _

Then, without a word, she started towards the house with all the dignity of someone who knew what was beyond life, and all the shame of someone who spent half a millennium running away. Luther hurried after her, but turned back to Vergil.

“Um, are you..?” He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the front doors.

“I’ll wait here.” He hissed, eyeing Luther with a look of something resembling suspicion. 

“You children return here when you are finished, and I shall take you back.”

Luther nodded hesitantly, then ran to catch up with Vanya.

The gaping front door that Luther had once thought resembled the open jaws of an angry beast, looked smaller to him now. Less intimidating. Walking into the large foyer didn’t exactly feel like coming home, but at least he didn’t feel like he was being swallowed whole anymore. 

But once he really looked around, he stopped dead in his tracks. 

A young Vanya - she’d be eleven or twelve around this time - sat on the staircase. She was sitting straight up, with her heels on the floor, and the hem of her skirt pulled tightly under her so that it resembled a pencil skirt more than a flowing one. There was a book in her lap, undoubtedly some old Latin text, or a book on maths much too mature for a child of twelve. But she didn’t look up at Luther, and she didn’t even wince as afterlife Vanya walked straight through her. She didn’t feel a shiver, or even look up. They were less than ghosts - unable to make even a slight impression on the people around them, even by the most drastic of means.

Luther paused before following his sister up the grand staircase, and tried not to step through young Vanya as he did. As he rounded the winding bend, he lost sight of Vanya, but could hear her footsteps echoing through the corridor, and was apparently the only one in the house who could do so. When he reached the top of the stairway, he saw Vanya turn right at the end of the corridor, and he knew then where she was headed.

_ Dad’s study! _

A nervous shock ran through him, and he shook his head at the absurdity of his own reaction. After all of these years, their father still had an effect on him. He had noticed that the purgatory version of their house they’d been inhabiting did not have a study, the only thing in the house not perfectly in line with where it was supposed to be. He had considered telling Five or Allison, but ultimately decided to keep it to himself.

When Luther reached the end of the corridor, he heard young voices chattering quietly in the stillness of the house. It didn’t take much debating for him to decide to go and investigate.

He could tell the voices were coming from Klaus’s room, boosting his confidence. After all, maybe this could help them with the case. He also noticed that the voices were harsh and hushed, with one sharper than the other. He hovered in the doorway, and looked at the two boys whose backs were to him as they stood in front of a tall mirror. In the reflection, he saw a twelve year old Ben stare back at himself. He was pale and gaunt with dark circles under his dull eyes. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in ages.

“It’s okay Ben.” A young Klaus said softly, putting his arm around his brother and eyeing the gaping red hole in Ben’s shirt. “You’ll have more control over it the more you practice. It won’t always be like this.”

“I don’t want it!” Ben wailed, and Klaus urgently shushed him, and glanced at the door. He dropped his arms and stood up straighter as he looked, and Luther froze as the young boy stared him straight in the eye.

“I don’t want to hurt people,” Ben sniffed, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Klaus stepped forward cautiously, as if he was worried that Luther was a deer that would run at the sight of him. He stopped after only a few feet though.

“Who are you?” He called warily, looking at Luther with a cross between suspicion, confusion, and hostility. “What do you want?”

Ben blinked and looked up, turning around to face his brother.

“Are you alright, Klaus?” He asked in a weary voice, and briefly looked around the room before returning his eyes to his brother. “Is there a ghost here?”

But Klaus’s eyes were still trained on Luther as he observed him like a dangerous, mythical creature. He could swear he saw a flicker of recognition in his young brother’s eyes, and he reached for the doorway to steady himself. It felt as if his heart was being wrung out like a towel, watching all the blood rushing down the drain as he stared back at Klaus with a knowing look.

This version of Klaus looked younger than he remembered, and exhausted. In life, Klaus’s energy and enthusiasm seemed boundless, and his impulsivity seemed to never run out. But the boy in front of him looked as if he had risked it all once, already, and knew the fragility of life. He knew that there was no real security here, just lies we tell ourselves and routines we fall into to perpetuate our illusions. He knew at the age of twelve what real danger felt like, and the man who was supposed to protect him had failed. All he got was hopelessness and a father who loathed and punished him. The look in the boy’s eyes held his last hoorah of “ _ help me!” _ and the building blocks for a future addict were already laid. The child in front of him was on the brink of a downwards spiral, a bottomless pit that he’d never totally be able to climb out of. The child in front of him was hardly a child at all.

_ You were too young,  _ Luther thought helplessly, frozen in Klaus’s dreadful gaze. 

“There’s always a ghost.” Klaus said quietly, and slowly turned back around, keeping his eyes on Luther for just a moment too long.

As soon as he looked away, Luther exhaled and slowly shuffled back. He suddenly remembered where he was and why, and turned away to hurry back down the hall.

_ You were way too young! _

**The Hargreeves’s House, nowhere in time.**

Klaus knew things had gone to shit before he even opened his eyes, so he took his time waking up. He couldn’t remember exactly what had happened, because the memory was old to him. But a particular day from Vietnam that he wasn’t fond of suddenly came to mind, as fresh as if it had happened yesterday, giving him a pretty good idea of where his brother and sister had been.

When he did finally open his eyes, Five was just a few inches from his face. He stood just before the couch, searching Klaus’s face for any sign of life. His eyebrows were furrowed so that they met between his eyes. He said something, but Klaus couldn’t hear him. His ears were ringing. 

A quick movement caught his eye, and he followed it as a knife zipped behind Five and stabbed the wall to his left. The wallpaper crumbled around the hilt as the blade pierced the wall as far as it would go in. 

Klaus traced it back to a fuming Diego, who screamed at the knife as it went through the wall, and shook his fists like an angry child. Allison sat on the floor beside him, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking slightly as if she was trying to comfort herself.

Five waved his hand in front of Klaus’s face to draw his attention back, and this time when he spoke, Klaus heard him loud and clear.

“Klaus,” he said carefully, lowering his face to level with him. “What the  _ fuck _ happened out there?”

Diego let out a deep, angry cry as if he were a hoplite going to war.

“Shut the fuck up Diego!” Five shouted, turning sharply to face his brother. Diego pulled out another knife and pointed it at Five, approaching him with the look of an animal on the hunt.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Diego hissed, getting in close with Five. “Something went wrong in your little simulation-thing. We ended up in the middle of some war.”

“It’s not a simulation,” Five said, baring his teeth in response to Diego’s knife and standing up straight. “You went through his  _ memory.” _

“That wasn’t a memory!” Diego warned, his voice rising in outrage. “That was fucking real!”  
“I thought you called it a simulation?” Five smirked, suddenly feeling the familiar itch for either coffee or alcohol.

“Whatever the fuck it was-” Diego’s voice rose unsteadily, and he halted to calm himself down. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t just a fucking memory.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Five said, matter-of-factly. “I said you went  _ through  _ his memory. It transcends time and personal perception.”

“It  _ what?” _ Diego shouted, raising his knife and his voice in the process. “You listen here-”

“It really was you,” Klaus interrupted quietly, looking up at Diego with a trembling lip and wide eyes. “It was _ you.” _

The three siblings in front of him looked up at once, and he met Diego’s gaze. His intense eyes shone with an unfamiliar darkness. He looked down at Klaus, chin raised, teeth gritted, like the man before him wasn’t his brother. Maybe Klaus had changed during the memory. Maybe he’d transformed into some hideous beast that his brother couldn’t bear. Maybe love was conditional, and Diego had reached a breaking point.

“I’m giving up.” Klaus said in a voice that trembled, despite his best efforts to keep it steady. “Throwing in the towel. It’s pointless, guys.”

“Klaus-” Allison started, as close to tears as he was.

“No,” he said hoarsely. “She’s an omniscient god. She knows everything already.”

“Klaus.” Five said impatiently, taking slow warning steps towards his brother. “You’re not doing this now.”

Klaus shook his head sadly.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up. Ben was sitting on the arm of the couch, perched above him, and he smiled reassuringly. Unlike Diego, Ben’s eyes were worried but kind, sad but steady. 

“Please, Klaus.” He said in a voice so raw, Klaus’s heart ached.

He felt a calmness wash over him. An existential calm, like the world was a whole lot bigger than him. It reminded Klaus of when he was on earth, he would kneel on the beach on his worst days, right at the edge of the ocean. He’d feel the cool water rush up the shore, crashing gently onto his skin and parting around him until he felt like he was a part of it. He’d be covered in sand and surrounded by water, and there was no real divide between him and the earth. Only then did he feel sane, only then did he feel safe. Then he’d stare out at the never-ending sea and know that he was too small to be significant. You needed to be noticed to be punished by gods, and his total ambiguity in the face of the universe was comforting. Except that turned out to be a myth, a lie to comfort himself. The ocean’s just water, it didn’t know right from wrong. Klaus believed that natural forces like that had a certain consciousness about it, and even if it didn’t, the creatures that inhabited it did. But they lacked self-awareness, and in that sense, they were truly free.

“Klaus?” Ben said, snapping him back to reality. His eyes took on a lot more concern now as he searched his brother’s face for a response.

Klaus blinked, and that beautiful small, feeling had passed. On the beach, the tide would return to the ocean and he’d be left with sand scraping his skin, cold and alone. He’d take his time walking home, despite the cold, and collapse onto his cot, or bench, or even bed if he was lucky. He wouldn’t even wash the sand from his skin as he fell into a restless, dreamless sleep.

But here his siblings surrounded him, every one of them looking at him with genuine concern. And looking into Ben’s eyes, he knew that his siblings didn’t just care because they had to. They cared because they wanted to. 

“Okay,” Klaus gasped, frozen under his siblings' gaze. Panic froze his veins as his heart pounded sickeningly in his chest. 

_ Why? _ He wondered, frustrated, as the tears spilled over his eyes. 

His chest tightened, but he avoided taking deep breaths in fear that he’d lose control. But where did this sudden panic come from? He was more scared now than he’d been in centuries, probably. 

“It’s okay, Klaus.” Ben said again, this time slowly and emphatically. Diego didn’t laugh at him. Five didn’t scoff, or turn away. Allison wasn’t pissed off, and Ben wasn’t angry. They let him cry, without judgement. He didn’t dare turn around to look at Diego, Allison and Five, but they were quiet as Ben held his hands and told him that everything would be alright. 

When Klaus wiped the last of the tears from his cheeks, and blinked his red, puffy eyes, he sat back on the couch. He looked down and spotted Five’s shoes as he sniffled. The shoes seemed to be glued to the floor as no one moved. Klaus waited for the punishment to settle in, the shunning. If they didn’t already believe he was weak from the memory they’d seen, they’d believe it now. 

Finally the small shoes started to move. They started forward and past Klaus leaving little rubber squeaks as they went. Five stopped at the bar, and Klaus heard the clink of bottles. Five took a long drink from one of the bottles. He really wanted to taste it, to feel the alcohol. When he was done, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and slowly crossed back over. 

“Okay,” Five said, nodding his head, his eyes not fixed anywhere in particular. “We’ll take an hour or two to just breath, and rest. Sleep, drink, talk shit out, whatever you need. Everyone should eat something during this time, so I can cook something quick. Because when we come back here, we’re giving this  _ everything  _ we’ve got. Okay?”

All of the siblings nodded absentmindedly, except Diego, who vigorously shook his head.

“None of y’all should worry,” he said sharply, as if he were being threatened. “Because we’re going to save Klaus. We save him or die trying!”

“We’re already dead.” Ben said softly.

“Then we’ll die again!” Diego growled. “Because we are not losing another member of this family!”

The room fell silent for a moment and Klaus was struck with a sleepy-haze. He assumed everyone else was, too, but he was wrong. After a minute, Allison burst into tears. She cried and wailed at the top of her lungs. Her face got red, and she combed her hair back with her tear-slicked hands. 

Klaus sat, stunned, and watched his sister. Then he looked up at Ben, then Five. Neither of them looked surprised. They actually looked like they had been expecting this.

“Enough!” Diego shouted at her, hand instinctively reaching for the knife in his belt. “I said shut up, Allison! Shut up!”

Allison covered her face, and ran to the corridor, sobbing loudly as she went. 

“I’ll make dinner,” Five said suddenly, not even waiting for the silence to take the room again.

“I’m going to go through Klaus’s folder again,” said Ben, hurrying towards his room as Five disappeared.

Within seconds, Klaus and Diego were left alone in the big room, avoiding eye contact.

“Did I upset her?” Klaus asked softly, leaning his head back. He felt exhausted in every sense of the word.

“No, no.” Diego said, defeated. “I did.”

“What happened?” Said Klaus, looking at Diego at last. He was still standing, but now he leaned against a column, squeezing the hilt of his knife. He scoffed and kept opening his mouth to speak, just to close it when the words didn’t come to him. He sighed in frustration, and finally just shook his head sadly.

“You know,” he started, struggling to find the right words. “At any moment over the past five-hundred years, it would’ve given me great pleasure to talk shit about her. But now that you’re asking, I’m not so sure it’s fair for me to say.”

“Okay.” Klaus said simply, not knowing how to respond either. The room was silent once again, and Klaus shifted himself awkwardly.

“Hey…” he said, studying Diego. “I’m really sorry you had to see what you saw today.”

Diego scoffed, but looked at him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m sorry, too.”

Klaus didn’t respond, but rather stared at the ceiling above him. Such beautiful designs up there that he’d never noticed before. He was aware of his own breathing, now. Something he hadn’t been aware of in a long time. And he thought of how nice it was just to exist here with Diego, even if they weren’t speaking. 

“I-”

Diego said, then sighed. 

“Come here,” he muttered like he was pissed off, but gestured for Klaus to stand.

Klaus obeyed, swinging his legs over the couch and getting to his feet. He felt dizzy for a moment, and smiled, facing Diego.

“Closer.” Diego said, motioning him over.

Klaus took a few steps forward and stopped.

“ _ Closer _ .” Diego said, impatiently.

Klaus moved forward and stopped just before Diego.

Diego grimaced awkwardly, and put a hand on Klaus’s shoulder. Then he looked him in the eye.

“I’m sorry you h-had to go through that.” he said, breathing heavily as if the notion scared him. “I’m here...for you.”

Klaus smiled warmly as his brother gave his shoulder a little shake. When Diego went to turn away, Klaus pulled him into a hug. 

“Ugh,” Diego groaned, but he put an arm around Klaus and patted his back. 

“Thanks, Diego,” Klaus beamed, hugging his brother even tighter as he tried to pull away.

“Yeah, okay,” Diego wheezed. “You can let go now.”

“No, I don’t think I can.”

“Klaus-”

“Sibling bonding.”

“ _ Klaus-” _ Diego finally managed to pry his brother off of him. “God, you’re all limbs.”

“Brotherly love.”

As Diego went to the kitchen to fill Five in on what had happened, Klaus went down the dark corridor that Allison had disappeared into.

“Allison?” he called, brushing his hands along the wall to try and find the light switch. He’d thought he’d remember every detail of the house he grew up in, if he ever got to return. But five-hundred years of wandering had really damaged his memory. 

“Allison, where are you?”

“I’m here, Klaus.” Allison sniffed, her voice ringing down the hall. 

Klaus sped up until he reached the window at the end of the corridor. Allison sat on the windowsill, looking up at the moon.

“Do you believe Luther spent years up there?” He said, leaning over to get a better view. “I mean, the bastard can’t even be left alone for two minutes these days.”

Allison laughed shakily, and wiped her nose on her sleeve. 

“Too bad they don’t have tissues in heaven,” Klaus smiled as he watched his sister wipe her eyes with the same sleeve. He took a seat next to her, and watched as her weary eyes returned to the moon.

“This isn’t heaven.” She said, her voice filled with longing.

He put on a mock-surprised face, and widened his eyes.

“ _ Really _ ?” he said, sarcastically, dropping his jaw. “What gave it away?”

Allison laughed harshly, her eyes still wet with all the tears she had shed. He shook his head and tried not to notice his heart pounding again.

“I’m sorry,” he said, trying to meet her gaze, but failing. “I’m sorry that you had to see that.”

_ “What?”  _ she asked, incredulous. “Are you serious? God,  _ I’m  _ sorry. I should be comforting  _ you!  _ Who was that asshole? Can I  _ kill  _ him?”

Klaus smiled dryly, but didn’t respond right away. When he did, he leaned forward and made sure that he meant it.

“I didn’t choose that memory… but it’s nice, in a way, to share it with someone.”

“I wish you’d told me.” Allison said softly. “Or someone, at least.”

Klaus waved her away and shrugged.

“Well, do you feel better?”

“I feel lighter,” Klaus said, stretching his legs out and flexing his feet. “But not really in the ‘Oh, a weight’s been lifted from my shoulders! Praise the lord!’ way. Like there’s a hole in my chest, or like a part of me is missing?”

“Oh,” Allison said, taking his hands. “A part of you isn’t missing, Klaus. A burden has been lifted from you, and now we’ve split it.”

“I’ve never liked that analogy.” Klaus said, uncomfortable with how deep the conversation was getting. “‘Baggage,’ I mean-”

“But I’m happy to carry it for you.”

She smiled, her eyes tearing up again, as she gave his hands a tight squeeze before letting go.

“You’re so cheesy!” Klaus giggled heavily, crossing his feet under him.

Allison laughed too, but it was strained and sad.

“No, really Allison.” He said. “Thank you.”

Her face quickly grew serious as she studied him.

“That guy Dave. Dave Katz. Is he…”

“...the one in the apocalypse with me? Yup.”

“Oh wow,” Allison sat up straight and faced him. “What was that like?”

“Dave is...I love him,” Klaus sighed, his heart twisting in his chest. “And we spent a long time together. Five-hundred years, I guess.”

“Oh-Oh,  _ wow _ ,” Allison repeated, shaking her head a little. Her eyes were stretched wide, and she looked out at the night sky, distant. Klaus watched her and nodded.

“Can I ask you something?” He asked, tugging at a rogue thread in her blouse that he still wore. He noticed that she had changed out of his uniform, into a blazer. He didn’t blame her.

“Yes-” Allison turned back to look at him with wide eyes, as if she was surprised to see him. “Yes, of course.”

“What happened to you and Diego?”

Allison bit her bottom lip and placed a hand delicately across her heart. Something in her eyes changed. She looked a lot less vulnerable now, and more like the powerful, untouchable woman she always seemed to be in life.

“It was my fault,” she said quietly, but her voice was steady now. “It’s Lila. I-I fucked up. Lila was sent by the Commission to end me. She caught me off guard, and I panicked…”

Tears were gathering in Allison’s eyes again, as she lowered her hand, and held her wrist.

“I rumoured her out of existence, Klaus.” She looked at him, her face stone-cold despite the tears returning to her eyes.

“You can do that?” He asked, inching forward to really look at her. Her dark skin looked grey in the light of the moon, her eyes hard and bitter.

“Apparently so.” She sighed, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Well...maybe we could do something…”

Allison’s head snapped back to look at him straight on, her eyes suddenly burning with intensity.

“Do what?” She snapped. “Search the galaxy for her? Try to rumour her back into existence? Offer to trade my soul for her’s?” 

She looked at Klaus for a moment, then took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was much softer, and heavy, and it hurt how much she meant it.

“I tried all of that. It didn’t work.”

Klaus leaned back, and watched as the tears returned to his sister’s eyes. Her face looked softer now, but not that soft. And it wasn’t a hysterical cry this time. It was quiet, sincere, and it broke Klaus’s heart.

“It’s gonna be okay, Allison…”

She closed her eyes.

“No,” She said sharply, shaking her head. “No, it’s not Klaus.” 

Her voice was clear and certain now. 

“But thanks for trying.”

She opened her eyes, and wiped the last of her tears away. Klaus eyed his sister, not sure what to make of her. Her eyes looked utterly void of hope, her eyelids heavy with exhaustion. She looked miserable, truly miserable. Allison, who never let anyone put her down; who was the best at everything; who brought a fire to everything she cared for. Yet here she was, finally “resting in peace” and she’d never been more hopeless.

Klaus was at a loss for words, something that was rare in his lifetime, but seemed to be happening more and more frequently every time he died and came back. He reached forward and took her hand, like she had taken his before. They sat there, in comfortable silence, holding hands and looking out into the night. Klaus wished they could stay like this. Sleep-deprived, making each other laugh through tears, in total-yet-comfortable silence. They hadn’t seen each other in five-hundred years before today, and yet, it felt as if not a single day had gone by. Like they knew each other as well as always. And he was sure that if She could see them now, She’d strike him back down in envy for all She’d never had.

“Anyway,” Allison sighed, breaking the silence. “You should get some rest. We’re  _ going  _ to find a way to keep you here, first thing in the morning.”

Klaus sighed dramatically, making Allison smile. 

“You’re telling me we need  _ sleep  _ too? Is this place  _ any  _ different from life?”

“Not really,” She laughed lightly. “There are a few perks though.”

“Oooooo…” Klaus waved his hands around and hopped off the windowsill. “Can’t wait to see what those are.”

Allison chuckled.

“Goodnight, Klaus.”

“‘Night, Allison.” He called back, and walked as casually as he could manage down the long hallway towards his room. Once inside, he slammed the door shut, and stood, breathing so hard, he felt lightheaded.

_ Breathe, Number Four. Breathe. _

Klaus wrapped his fingers around the nearest object - a small Budha statue, he’d soon find out - and smashed it into the mirror on his wall. The silver glass shattered, falling to the ground in a mess of pointed puzzle pieces. He slid down the wall, agonizing, dropping the small statue.

“She? You Almighty Asshole?” He whined, and leaned his head against the wall.

“You summoned?” She snapped into existence in the center of the room. She looked exactly as she always did, except her hair was in pigtails, and her beloved bicycle was nowhere to be seen.

“How is this whole, ‘ _ Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind _ ,’ thing going to help me? Why did you let Allison erase Lila from existence, and why won’t you bring her back? And, tell me why you won’t take Dave,  _ please. _ ”

She walked towards him, and looked down. She wasn’t looking at  _ him _ though, not in the eye at least. 

“Are you threatening to kill yourself?” she asked plainly, as if she were asking him for the time.

“I…” Klaus’s voice trailed off, and he followed her gaze. He was clutching a broken shard of mirror in one hand, and pressing it into the wrist of his opposite hand almost hard enough to break skin. She met his eye again.

“That’s not going to work here. You’re not on Earth anymore.”

Klaus opened his hand, letting the glass clatter to the floor. He looked at his palm where he had been squeezing the glass. It left no marks. He barely registered this before speaking again.

“If I ask you something,” he said carefully. “Will you answer me honestly?”

She shrugged.

“I guess. Unless there’s a reason not to.”

“Everything my siblings are doing, have done. All this memory-searching, and the race against time… will it make a difference? In your eyes?”

She was looking at him, bored, like he was discussing the weather. But when he asked this question, She didn’t answer right away.

“I mean…” Klaus reached for the thought that had been in the back of his mind all day, but he refused to really consider it until now.

“Do we even stand a chance of actually changing your mind?”

She looked at him curiously for a moment, then sighed. 

“You think you’re asking questions,” She kneeled, and sat on Her feet so that She was level with him. “But you’re really just saying answers.”

“What does that mean?” Klaus groaned, leaning his head back. “Can’t you ever not speak in riddles? Like thanks for the clue,  _ Scooby-Doo _ , but you're still just barking at me.”

She paused for a moment.

“You’re odd.” She looked down, then leaned in towards him. 

“You want to know if you have a chance at changing my mind and letting you in here?”  
“Any chance at all.”

“No.”

Klaus raised his head and looked at Her, silent. This was what he had suspected, but hearing Her say it so coldly and casually, he was sure he had heard her wrong.

“Pardon?”

“No,” She said again, shrugging. “No, I am an Almighty, and I already know everything there is to know. You and your brothers and sisters will not change my mind. This is merely routine.”

She said it so casually, like they were having a light conversation over breakfast. 

“Oh…” was all he could manage. She was looking at him the same way now as when She had first appeared, entirely unphased by the conversation at hand. “Well, that fucking blows.”

“Not to mention,” She shrugged, leaning back again. “That a human’s death tends to bring out the worst in them.”

He smiled at Her, feeling as if he finally knew something that She didn’t.

“Not me,” he whispered, running a hand over where the tattoo on his stomach was.

“Could I ask you a favour then?” his throat hurt from the effort it took to keep his voice from shaking.

“You can ask.” She shrugged, picking up a piece of the Buddha statue and examining it indifferently.

“Okay. When all of this is over - could you take Dave, bring back Lila, and take me out of existence?”

“You can’t ask favours for anyone else.”

“Will you let me and Lila switch, so that she exists and I don’t?”  
“You can only make requests that affect you and only you.”

“I don’t want to go back there. Just take away my consciousness, please. Let me not exist.” His voice shook now, and it took everything to keep it under control. He swallowed hard.

“I don’t want to be alone.”

She looked at him seriously, now. Her ancient eyes glimmering sadly in Her childish face. Looking into Her eyes felt like looking through all of history. Everything that had ever happened and ever would stared back at him. Even the oldest being, the spirited soul, or the wisest scholar could not match the eyes of the child in front of him.

“Okay.” She agreed, Her voice uncharacteristically sharp. “If that’s what you want.”

Klaus breathed a sigh of relief, and closed his tired eyes.

“It’s what I want.”

He heard Her get to Her feet, but he didn’t open his eyes until She spoke.

“Klaus?”

“Hm?”

“I really hope you change your mind.”

She smiled at him, and then She was gone.

A long time after She left, Klaus got to his feet, and collapsed onto his bed. He laughed in relief, a sad sort of laugh that carried him off to sleep.


	5. Sink or Swim

**Part 5:** Sink or Swim

**Pittsburg, 2003.**

As Luther hurried back down the corridor, he met a wide-eyed Vanya near the stairs. She hunched over, and breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath.

“Are you okay?” he asked, eyeing his sister. Her face was scrunched up in confusion, her eyebrows furrowed in distress. 

“Yeah,” she breathed, defeated. She looked down, her eyes heavy and tired. “I’m fine.”

“Okay…” he said, more of a question than a confirmation. Vanya pushed past him and rushed down the stairs, as if she was worried they were being chased. Luther caught up with her, taking the stairs two at a time. 

“Wait,” Luther put a hand on her shoulder, and she spun around dangerously on the steps to face him. “What did you see?”

She blinked, then nodded. She reached a hand into her pocket and when she pulled it out, Luther saw a glimmer of gold. She held up a key to him, about the width of her hand.

“I…” she began, then sighed. “I don’t know what it is.”

Luther examined the key, then looked up at her questioningly.

“It was sitting on dad’s desk, and all of a sudden I had a hunch.”

“A hunch..?” Luther said absentmindedly, handing the key back to her.

“Yeah, that it would come in use. I know it doesn’t make sense-”

“Okay,” he said, and this time it was final.

Vanya searched his face for any indication of anger or frustration.

“Okay..?” She said, warily.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I trust you. If you think we should take this key, we take this key.”

Vanya smiled lightly, her eyes shining. 

“Okay.” She nodded, and turned back around, skipping down the rest of the stairs. Luther hurried after her, and only briefly hesitated before stepping through an oblivious young Vanya.

Vergil was waiting for them outside in the exact place they had left him, his crooked figure unnaturally still. He raised an eyebrow as they approached, and took Vanya’s beaming expression as a good sign.

“Have you found what you were looking for?” He asked her as she ran down the sidewalk, Luther on her heels.

“No,” she sighed, but she smiled. “But I think we found what we needed.”

Vergil didn’t question beyond this, but instead took her hand, holding the other out for Luther. As soon as Luther took it, he knew they were back. The people on the streets had disappeared, the city that had been bustling with life was suddenly still.

**The Hargreeves’s House, nowhere in time.**

When Luther and Vanya returned to their house in the time they had left, they quickly followed the voices coming from the living room upstairs. Vanya didn’t know what she expected to see as she hurried to join her siblings, but it sure wasn’t the scene that she walked into. By the time she got to the living area, the talking had ceased, and the room was completely silent.

Klaus, Ben, and Five were lying unconscious on the floor in the middle of the room. They were hand-in-hand, with Ben lying face-down on Klaus’s chest. Diego looked down at them, frowning from his place on the couch. On the opposite couch, Allison sat with her arms crossed, staring at the floor sadly.

“What the hell is going on?” Vanya asked, eyeing the scene before her. Diego and Allison looked up, unfazed at the reappearance of their missing siblings.

“Oh hey,” Diego said in a monotone voice. “You’re not dead.”

“We’ll fill you in later,” Allison said, leaning forward and squinting at her three brothers who were unconscious on the carpet. “But right now, can you come over here and tell me if you think Ben is breathing?”

Vanya walked over and sat next to Allison, examining Ben from a distance. Luther casually walked up, and reached out for Ben.

“ _ No _ !” Diego shouted, startling his brother, who hopped back nervously. “Five said you’re not allowed to touch them.”

“Why?” Luther asked, stumbling backwards.

“Because it will wake them up.”

“Maybe I’m missing something…” Vanya shifted to get a better look at Klaus and Five. “But shouldn’t we try to wake them up?”

“No, they’re in Klaus’s memory. It’s something…” Allison shook her wrist, looking for the word, and her many bracelets made a ringing sound as they clashed together. “...something to do with helping him? I’m not sure. It was in the book She gave him.”

“Oh. Okay, I get it.” Luther said, clearly not getting it. He took a seat next to Diego and waited. 

Vanya looked down at Klaus, turning the key in her pocket, lost in her thoughts. The four of them sat in silence, waiting for their brothers to wake up. Vanya was tired from her time-hopping trip, and her eyes were beginning to feel heavy when she noticed something - Klaus’s shirt was turning red.

“What...is that?” she pointed. She felt Allison stiffen by her side. Diego shot to his feet.

“It’s blood!” he cried.

Allison was on her feet in seconds, and kneeled beside Klaus.

“Klaus, wake up.” She said sternly, shaking him. “Klaus,  _ wake up” _

As Klaus stirred, Vanya circled around them, carefully avoiding Five, who was sprawled on the floor in front of her.

“Hey guys…” Vanya said, her throat tightening with fear.

“What is it?” Diego asked, distracted as he lifted Klaus’s shirt to try to locate the source of the blood.

“I don’t think that’s Klaus’s blood…”

Allison abruptly started shaking Klaus, and looked back at the blood. Luther slowly reached out and turned Ben over. 

“ _ What?”  _ Allison cried. “But this can’t happen here. You can’t bleed if you’re dead!”

Allison, Diego and Luther stared down at their brother, his white shirt turning red with blood.

“Ben.” Vanya rushed over and shook him. “Ben!”

As Klaus and Five began to slowly stir, Ben remained as still and as cold as a stone.

“ _ Ben!”  _ Vanya cried, shoulders hunched with dread and despair. “Not again, please. Not again!”

**Pittsburg. 20 minutes earlier.**

Five awoke to see a fourteen year old Klaus tying his belt around his scrawny arm. 

“Oh no,” Five said, furrowing his brows. “He’s too young for this shit!”

“Well, that’s Klaus for you,” Ben sighed, watching the boy in front of him with sad eyes. “Extreme, as always.”

Some sketchy-looking, full-grown man prepped the needle and slid it into Klaus’s skin. Ben watched as his brother moaned and shuddered, falling back onto the brown carpet. Ben looked down, suddenly unable to watch his brother do what Ben had watched him do countless times before. But this time was different. This was the hit to end all hits. The very first. From this point on, Klaus would never be the same. He would function like a part of him was missing, a part of him that could be found in a heated spoon, a toxic syringe, and a carpet that hadn’t met a vacuum in fifteen years.

“This carpet was white, once.” Ben observed, as he looked at his toes. There was no trace of whiteness in it, and he wasn’t sure how he knew. Maybe from following Klaus to heroin dens, and shady apartments, watching his brother react the same with every hit. But every time he’d get just a little more desperate. Like every syringe held all life within it, like nothing mattered outside of it.

Five looked down at the carpet and a chill ran up his spine. And just as Five looked back up, Klaus began to sink through the floor, smothered beneath whatever filth was caught there.

And then Five and Ben began to sink, too.

“Oh no.” Five said sharply, freezing in place as if that would make him unsinkable. “No.”

“It’s okay,” Ben reassured him, up to his knees in the most unsanitary floor either of them had ever seen. “It’s not real.”

Five groaned, up to his shoulders in it, and tried to keep his head afloat. Ben gave him a reassuring smile, and ducked into the ground. The perks of not-really-being-there meant he couldn’t smell or taste the carpet as he sunk down.

“No,  _ no!”  _ Five shouted through gritted teeth, as the carpet swallowed up his face.

He landed on something solid enough to send a shock through his knees, and he caught himself with one hand as he fell backwards. The ground here was rough and scraped at his exposed palms.

“Here, take my hand,” Ben extended an arm to his wild-eyed brother. Five begrudgingly accepted and let Ben pull him to his feet. As Five dusted off his black jeans and buttoned-up shirt, Ben looked around. The ground beneath them was cement, and cars buzzed around them. It was a city he knew better than any other. It was central Pittsburg.

“Do you see Klaus?” Five looked around at every face that passed by, lunging in front of strangers who were blind to the boy in front of them. Or man in front of them. It depended on how you looked at it, Ben supposed. 

“Not yet,” He said cooly, leaning on the wall behind him. He looked up at his brother, a full eighty pounds of rage, dodging in front of people who walked right through him.

“Can I ask you something?” Ben said, peeling at the paint on the wall.

“Sure.” Five sighed, defeated, dropping his arms to his sides in exasperation. He walked back to his brother, and leaned a shoulder on the wall.

Ben sighed deeply, and took his time. A long strip of paint curled under his fingernail, and he flicked it away.

“Do you think any of this is going to work?” He asked simply, but couldn’t ease the strain from his voice.

Five looked at him slowly and carefully, as if Ben had insulted him deeply.

“ _ Of course  _ it’s going to work. We’re following the book perfectly. Once we figure out how to interfere with Klaus’s memories, we’ll be all set.”

“But what does any of this really matter? Klaus’s fate was already decided. Besides, we only got through one memory so far, and it didn’t seem to go too well. I-”

Ben sighed and met his brother’s intense gaze. 

“-we’re running out of time.”

“Listen to me,” Five said, pointing a finger up at him. “If you want to mope around and get philosophical on me, then that’s on you. But  _ I’m _ going to help our brother. Besides, wasn’t  _ your  _ fate decided before you just  _ came back to life? _ ”

“There!” Ben shouted, pointing behind Five. Five whipped around to see a young Klaus walking by them, no older than sixteen. He wore a pink poncho even though it wasn’t raining, and had his hood up and his hands jammed in his pockets.

Five and Ben quickly turned around and pretended to admire the wall behind them, so that Klaus would not get a good enough look to recognize them.

“Look at this art!” Ben shouted stiffly. “I sure would like to paint my bathroom this colour.”

“Shut up, dumbass!” Five whispered loudly. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Klaus walked right by them.

He sighed in relief, before turning to Ben.

“It’s a wall!” He shouted quietly, gesturing frantically. “It’s a plain, white wall!”

He shook his head and pushed past Ben, casually following Klaus. He turned the corner, and followed the memory of his brother into the entrance of the building they had been leaning on. He watched as young Klaus got in a line, and Five followed a little ways behind, letting people go in front of him so he wouldn’t be seen.

Klaus got up to the big, glass window, and leaned over the counter. A middle-aged woman appeared, and much to Five’s frustration, he couldn’t hear what they were saying. He looked around. Large, white columns lined the smooth marble walls of the building. The wall he came in on was glass, and so was most of the wall in front of him, save for the counters. Five turned slowly back to his brother, heart pounding, as Klaus whipped off the poncho. He had a gun strapped to his bare chest, and he raised it with stupid confidence, like a kid with a water gun.

_ Well, that was fast.  _ Five thought and chuckled to himself, trying to remind himself that none of this was real.

“This is a fucking robbery, you elite  _ sluts _ !” He shouted, as if he were playing a video game. “Get on your pretty knees before I take a shot at the fucker next to you!” 

He laughed, utterly hysterical. Tears were gathering in his eyes, and his ears turned red as he continued to cackle. Five sat on the floor, trying to hide his face behind the people panicking in front of him. 

A young woman who looked to be about twenty burst through the door. She was wearing a hazmat suit as pants, with the top half tied around her waist and the mask slung over her face. She also carried a gun, and Five looked at the ground as he heard her heavy boots clack by.

“This is a fuckin’ robbery!” She shrieked. “Give us everything you got, or we start taking shots at civilians!”

She put her hand on Klaus’s shoulder and laughed. He was still laughing, tears and snot running down his face now.

“Okay…” The woman behind the glass said, her voice shaking uncontrollably. “I-I’m just going to go back...to the safe.”

“Fuckin’ hurry up!” The young woman screamed, then turned back to the crowd with a sudden calmness. “Now, which one of you fuckers wants to die first?”

Klaus pulled his shoes off, and sat on the floor with his legs crossed under him. The woman looked down.

“Hey, Klaus. What aren’t you wearing a mask?”

“I didn’t want anyone to get scared, Kitty.” He shrugged. “The mask you gave me is scary.”

“Hey, _dipshit,”_ She hissed under her breath. “The whole point is for them to be fucking scared!”  
“You have to call me by my codename!”

“No!”

“Yes, you do.”

She stomped her foot as her gun lowered dangerously towards the crowd in the midst of her distraction and carelessness.

“Fine!  _ Sharpee.” _

Klaus gasped sharply as if he were offended.

“Shar- _ pay!” _

“Sharpee, Sharpay, what’s the difference?”

Klaus gasped again, this time letting his jaw drop and raising a hand to his chest.

“Just...take off the skirt. I’m gonna use it to carry the money.”

Klaus clicked his tongue. 

“Can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Well...this is kinda my formal attire.”

“Are you fucking naked under there?”

“Well, technically, we all are.” Klaus gestured around the room. 

Without looking away from him, Kitty pointed her gun straight forward and pulled the trigger. The bullet narrowly missed a man’s head, and shattered the window behind him. Klaus stared up at her in awe.

“Fine!” He said, pulling at the leather around him. “You can have the fucking skirt-”

“No, no!” She shouted, turning away in disgust. He froze as she turned back to glare at him. “Do you think this is a joke, Hargreeves?” 

Kitty turned towards the crowd.

“Do any of you think this is a  _ fucking joke? _ ” She screamed. “Because I’ll kill everyone in this fucking room!”

Klaus giggled as she glared down at him. Then he giggled harder, louder. It seemed as if the more dangerous that look in her eyes got, the harder he laughed.

“Kitty, stop it…” he said quietly. But Kitty didn’t listen. She kept hurling threats, and pointing her gun at the ceiling, mocking a scene from “Scarface.” The man who she’d nearly shot had his hands over his ears. A child began to wail, and its mother squeezed it to her body in hopes that it wouldn’t draw attention.

Klaus got to his feet, and tugged urgently at her hazmat suit. 

“ _ Kitty!”  _ He shrieked, but she pushed him away. Five swallowed hard, and desperately looked around for some sort of distraction. Something to throw Kitty off her rhythm. But a motion towards the door and a gasp from the crowd told Five someone had beat him to it.

He knew it was Ben even before he turned to look, but seeing his brother standing there confirmed his fear. Dread bubbled up within him as Ben stepped slowly forward.

“Klaus…” he said, as calmly as he could manage. “Put down the gun. You don’t want to do this.”

Klaus pointed the gun in Ben’s direction. 

“Sit down, asshole!” He shouted. Kitty looked around frantically and waved her gun around like a toy.

“Who’re you talkin’ to?” She demanded nervously, and the way she whipped her gun around screamed that she was trigger-happy.

“That guy…” Klaus said, breathing heavily. “He said my name.”

“Who said your name?” Kitty demanded, suddenly anxious and jittery. “Who said your fuckin’ name?”

“That guy…” Klaus pointed at Ben, who stood staring at him with kind, trusting eyes. Klaus looked at Kitty, a knowing look tensing his face and narrowing his eyes. He looked back at Ben

“Listen,” he said as calmly as he could manage, holding a palm up to Ben. “There doesn’t have to be any trouble. Just sit back down.”

“I don’t see no fuckin’ guy!” Kitty screamed now, her finger already applying pressure to the trigger as she bounced her weight from foot to foot.

“Sir, please!” Klaus begged, as Ben continued to move slowly towards him. “Sit  _ down _ !”

“ _ WHERE!” _ She caught sight of the direction Klaus was looking towards and pulled the trigger without a second thought. 

Kitty’s gun kicked as it went off, sending a bullet through Ben as it shattered the glass behind him.

Five furrowed his eyebrows and watched his brother clutch the bullet wound who surely shouldn’t have, wondering what kind of toll this took on someone who was already dead.

“You shot him...” Klaus said in quiet disbelief. Five looked back at Ben, who was clutching his side, and groaning. He fell to the floor.

“You shot him!” Klaus screamed, dropping his gun. He ran to Ben’s side.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” he sobbed, dropping to his knees in front of Ben.

“You said these weren’t loaded!” He yelled back at Kitty, who looked at him with a bewildered expression on her face. “You said no one would get hurt!” 

“ _Who_?” she demanded, curling her lip to reveal perfect teeth. “Klaus, you’re losing it. There’s no one there!”  
Five snapped out of his trance, and stumbled to his feet.

“Hey. Hey!” he shouted, shouldering Klaus out of the way. “You’re gonna be okay, Ben. You’re gonna be okay.”

“What do we do?” Klaus moaned desperately, rocking on his ankles next to Five. 

“Klaus, there’s no one there!” Kitty insisted, as he pulled at his hair and stumbled backwards, crying. 

“No!” Klaus screamed, a dreadful feeling clawing at the pit of his stomach as recognition set in. He rubbed his eyes, and pulled his hair, shaking.

“It’s okay. Klaus?” Five turned towards his brother and reached out a bloody hand towards him. “It’s gonna be okay. We just need to-”

“ _ Five-?” _ Klaus sobbed harder, hysterical now. “ _ Is that you?” _

“Okay, yeah, Klaus-”

He was interrupted by a gagging cough from Ben. Blood was streaming down his chin, as his white shirt turned red.

“It’s okay Ben,” Five whispered, his mind going a million miles a minute.

“ _ BEN?”  _ Klaus screamed, falling still for a second before he exploded.

But then he screamed indistinguishably and stumbled to his feet in a panicked shuffle. He bolted through the window frame where the bullet had shattered the glass, and sprinted down the street. Five sighed in aggravation, and turned back to Ben.

But Ben’s face was beginning to look blurry, and the ground beneath them seemed to move.

“Okay,” Five sniffed. “This is it, Ben. This is it. Here we go.”

But as Five stirred awake, he found that it wasn’t over. His siblings were shouting in absolute chaos, as they scattered in total panic. Vanya was screaming at Ben to wake up, Diego was fumbling with the phone, Allison ran for the door, and Luther shot up abruptly.

“Vergil!” His brother shouted, his voice booming in the wide living area.

Vergil appeared behind Luther with a sound like a sizzle, startling him.

“Wo could possibly make thou summon mine good graces at this wretched hour?” Vergil demanded in a jumble of grammatical incorrectness, as he gestured around the dark living area.

Luther blinked, processing that sentence.

“He wants to know what’s up!” Five snapped impatiently, sitting up and leaning over Ben. Luther turned to him, surprised, and Five waved him away.

_ Why do I have to do everything myself?  _ Five thought to himself, and gritted his teeth.

“We entered  _ his  _ fucked-up head-” 

Five gestured to Klaus, who was staring down at Ben in horror.

“-and now the dead are dying. Can you fix this?”

Klaus sat up and hugged Ben to him.

“Oh no,” he groaned. “Oh no, Ben  _ please. _ I’m so sorry!”

Vergil grumbled under his breath, and swatted Klaus away, prying Ben coldly from his arms. 

“He’s dead,” growled Vergil matter-of-factly. “But no more dead than he was before.”

All of the Hargreeves looked at each other and held their breath. Allison, just having returned, put a hand to her chest. Diego dropped the phone, as Ben inhaled deeply.

“You children have plunged your fists through Time, leaving her in shambles, utter ruins….” Vergil snarled.

“Well,” Klaus sighed, looking up at Five. “Glad to see nothing’s changed.”

Vergil lifted Ben’s shirt to see his wound. Sure enough, there was a bullet lodged in him. Then, God’s Least Favourite Servant reached into the gaping wound with his narrow, bone-like fingers, and dug around for the bullet.

“Whoa!” Vanya and Klaus shouted at the same time, as Klaus turned away in revulsion. Luther gagged and turned the other way.

Vergil successfully retrieved the bullet, and held it up to the light. The skin around Ben’s wound immediately began to heal over the hole.

“He’ll be alright now,  _ heathens _ .” Vergil hissed, pocketing the bullet in his dark robes.

“Vergil,” Vanya said. “The bullet really shot Ben though, so-”  
“Ah, fuck!” Diego shouted, looking at the empty space where Vergil had been a moment before. “He’s gone.”

“Ben?” Klaus whispered, gently shaking his brother. “Ben, are you alright?”

Their brother stirred lightly, regaining consciousness. The siblings let out a sigh of relief.

Vanya caught sight of Diego, phone cord still wrapped tightly around his clenched first.

“What were you doing?” She asked kindly. Diego looked at his sister and scoffed, as if she failed to understand the obvious.

“Calling the police!” He snapped. “Duh!”

“But, dude…” Vanya said, seriously. “We’re...dead.”

Diego shook the phone in his hand, angrily, as Allison looked at him and smiled.

“Did you have a better idea?” He said, gesturing towards Vanya.

“No,” She turned back to Five, grinning. He met her gaze, and couldn’t help smiling as well. 

“No, I didn’t.”

A sigh from Ben caught Five’s attention, as he groaned and opened his eyes. Klaus leaned over him, examining him, and holding his face to get a better look.

“Are you okay, Ben?” Klaus said gently, brushing a stray strand of hair from his brother’s face.

“ _ You.”  _ Ben roared, as soon as he was even remotely conscious. “I ought to  _ kill you! _ ”

He pushed Klaus away, and Klaus pushed him weakly back. Ben stared at him oddly and shook his head.

“Yeah!” Five piped up. “Robbing a bank? What the fuck were you  _ thinking _ ?”

“I was thinking… I needed to eat.”

“No,” Ben shook his head wildly. “No, you were thinking you needed drug-money.”

Klaus tilted his head to one side, and then the other. He scrunched up his face as if he were considered Ben’s statement. Finally he shrugged dramatically and sighed.

“Oh, what’s it matter, anyway!” He yelled, waving his hands in front of his face. “We’re all dead, now. In the end.”

“You  _ shot  _ me!” Ben howled, gesturing to the big, red blotch on his shirt.

“No, Kitty shot you!” Klaus said, raising a finger.  
“Oh, yeah, Kitty.” Ben said in a mock-conversational tone, nodding casually. “Yeah, how’s she doing?”

Klaus sucked his teeth, and grimaced.

“Actually, not too good.” He said, speaking in his normal voice, clearly not picking up on Ben’s sarcasm. “Because of my meltdown, the whole thing got fucked up. She got a twenty-year sentence.”

“Oh.” Ben whispered in a voice that shook with rage. “I’m sorry. Am I supposed to feel bad that the woman who shot me, was  _ ARRESTED?” _

His voice had risen to a shout, and Klaus flinched. He didn’t answer.

Ben shook his head, and got to his feet.

“Un-fucking-believable.”

“No,” Klaus said, snapping out of his haze. “It was my fault.”

“You’re damn right it is!” Five shouted. “How much of a fucking idiot are you? Did you even _think_ -?”  
“Alright.” Allison snapped, startling them all. “That’s enough! We’re running out of time, here!”

“No…” Klaus shook his head weakly. “It’s pointless. We’re done.”

“ _WHAT?”_ Diego cried, clutching the phone tighter and tighter in his gloved fist. “Are you seriously giving up?”  
Klaus didn’t answer, but just looked distantly at the floor. His silence infuriated Five.

“No.” Diego continued. “You’re not pulling this shit. Do you know what our siblings went through to get you to this point?”

“I appreciate it,” Klaus said hoarsely, leaning back on his hands. “I do. But it’s not going to change anything.”

“So that’s just it?” Allison said through gritted teeth as she glared down at him. Her arms were crossed and her nostrils were flared. “You’re just giving up.”

“It’s not giving up if it was never possible in the first place.” Klaus said, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand.

“Wow.” Ben laughed dryly, standing up weakly like a corpse rising from the dead. “I really underestimated what a selfish prick you are.”  
“What do you want me to say, Ben?” Klaus whined, and the light tone in his voice infuriated Five even more.

“I just took a bullet for you!” Ben said, now sounding more bewildered than angry.

Klaus shrugged, indifferently.

“No!” Five snarled, and pointed at his brother. “You’re going to clean the fuck up, and then you’re going to do exactly as we say. You don’t get to fuck up just because you’re selfish and destructive! You’re going to do what we say!”

“Or what?” Klaus asked, a mischievous look in his eyes, like this was a joke.

Five teleported to Klaus’s side, threw back his arm, and punched his brother as hard as he could.

“ _ OWWW _ !” Klaus shrieked, hand flying to his face.

“Pull yourself together!”

“O- _ kay!” _ Klaus let out an exaggerated sigh. “I just don’t want you all to be disappointed when this doesn’t work.”

“We’re disappointed already.” Allison said coldly, and the smile disappeared from Klaus’s face. 

“We’re out of time, anyway.”

She walked off, the sound her heels clicking rhythmically on the floor reminded Five of a funeral march. Ben followed, as Luther slowly headed for the kitchen with Vanya close behind. Five teleported out of there, as he had seen enough.

Only one sibling remained in the room with Klaus. He looked up at Diego anxiously as he finally dropped the phone and collapsed onto the couch.

“Diego, I’m sorry,” Klaus groaned.

“Stop it.” Diego began to throw his knife in the air above him, and catch it. “You’re not sorry. You’re a child. No whining. It’s time to grow up.”

Klaus sighed and tore open his blouse. Diego caught the knife he had been tossing and stared.

“What?” Klaus said sharply, tearing his shirt off entirely. “Not everything is for your viewing pleasure, Diego. You perv.”

“And not everything is about you.” Diego said dryly, and continued throwing his knife. He suddenly looked very sad, and tired, and Klaus wondered if his brother had slept at any point in the past five-hundred years.

“I lost Lila.” He said quietly, letting the knife fall a little too close to his chest for Klaus’s comfort.

“I know,” Klaus said as he watched the blood dry on his shredded blouse. “Allison rumoured her out of existence. That’s cold.”

Diego caught his knife just before it hit his chest. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, before continuing. 

“So she told you, yes.” Diego threw his knife and Klaus watched as it grazed the ceiling. “I would do anything to get her back. Anything.”

He swallowed hard before continuing, and caught the knife in his trembling hand.

“And here you are. You have this chance that only a  _ handful _ of souls in  _ all _ of history have ever gotten, something I would gladly burn in hell for if it meant that Lila could have it; and you’re throwing it away.”

Klaus stared at Diego for a moment, and then sighed and shook his head with forced-empathy.

“Yeah, that fucking blows. You know Allison tried to rumour her back, and couldn’t? That’s tragic.”

Diego turned his head to look at his brother. Klaus was scratching at the blood in his shirt.

“Yeah, w-well…” Diego stuttered. “That’s beside the point. The point is - for the sake of your siblings, who would do  _ anything  _ for you - at least  _ pretend _ to care, dammit!”

Klaus looked up at Diego, with an expression somewhere between frowning and pouting, and then looked back down.

“Do it for Ben,” Diego said, looking at the bloody shirt. “Who spent half a millennium looking for you, bargaining for you. He wouldn’t rest until he found you. And here you are, not even willing to try for him.”

Klaus froze and tilted his head one way, and nodded, then the other way as if he were reasoning with himself. Finally, he dropped the shirt, and sighed.

“Fine…” he whined.

Diego scoffed, and shook his head in disbelief.

“I’m out of here.” He said, clutching his knife and rushing off towards the hallway. “Get ready for the trial. Or don’t. I don’t fucking care.”

As the sound of Diego’s footsteps echoed quieter and quieter, Klaus grew uncomfortably aware of how alone he was. He suddenly felt paranoid, even though there was no one around. The big living area now felt like a fishbowl, and he was the unlucky gold-gilled bastard.

And for the first time in a long time, he felt an aching in his body. An old, familiar feeling. His first love. He had hoped it had died with his body, but the tingling pleasure in his veins told him otherwise. And, against his better judgement, he began to wonder if there was anything stashed in the timeless house. Skag, blow, even a bit of weed. He closed his eyes and let out a deep, shuddering sigh at the thought of it. 

“Hello, old friend.” Klaus breathed, feeling more alive than he had in all his death.

He sat up for hours, bouncing between the thought of what Diego had said, and the mental attempt to recreate the feeling of a high. And by the time the house awoke for the trial, Klaus had never felt more dead.


	6. The Way Things Are

**Part 6:** The Way Things Are

**The Afterlife, Nowhere in Time.**

Ben sat on a bench and looked out at the bright green grass that stretched out in front of him. It reminded him of the field he, Luther, and Diego used to play soccer on as kids. They would sneak out in the middle of the night, and walk to the park. The field stretched out for what seemed like forever, and it was the closest to heaven he ever got on Earth. But all of the guests here wore white attire, and they seemed calm if not solemn. The sight of it reminded Ben of a midsummer festival he had once followed Klaus to, as a ghost, in Germany. He didn’t know much about the history or culture, but watching people dance in the sunlight and wave around pastel colours was beautiful. The memory seemed too happy on this most serious of serious days, but he supposed there were no funerals in paradise. He looked over at Klaus, who was wearing flowy, white pants, his blouse wide open exposing his bare chest. Ben leaned towards him.

“Klaus?”

“Ben?” Klaus said, with a shallow smile that failed to hide the deep sadness in his eyes.

“Button up your shirt, buddy.” Ben whispered, leaning back over. Vanya sat between them, staring distantly at the ground with a concerned look on her face. Ben squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, and she gave him a tight smile in return.

He looked out at the other benches, and his eyes settled on the bench closest to them, where their support sat. Sissy caught his eye and smiled at him, a fully grown Harlan at her side. Ben raised his eyebrows in surprise. The last time he had seen Harlan, he’d still been a kid. But here he was, a tall, distinguished looking man. Harlan nodded at him, and Ben smiled in return. He looked over at Five, amused, as his brother still appeared to be thirteen. His brother hadn’t grown up again, not even here. But Ben supposed that was just his cross to bear.

On the other side of Sissy sat Elliot, who apparently didn’t get the memo that they were doomed to lose the trial. He gave Ben a big, toothy grin, and two thumbs up. Ben smiled politely back at him. Next to Elliot sat a wiser-looking Hazel, who was staring out across the field with a jaded look that brought Ben back to the dark reality they were in. And on Harlan’s other side sat a beautiful woman with dark skin, a flower crown lying gracefully over her braided hair. Ben didn’t recognize her, but smiled politely at her.

“Hi, Uncle Ben,” she said, breaking out into a grin.

Ben looked at her again, closer this time, and his jaw dropped.

_ “CLAIRE?” _ He gasped, his voice raising an octave. “Oh my god! It-it’s so good to see you!” 

Ben leaned all the way back towards her, half-falling, half-jumping over the bench. Claire sprang from her seat, and pulled him into a hug.

“Guys!” Ben laughed, incredulous. “Do you see who it is?”

“Yeah,” Diego said, like it should be obvious. “Claire used to hang out with us all the time while you were off in the universe.”

Diego waved his hands around and looked up at the sky, gesturing at the universe.

“Oh,” Ben said awkwardly. “Well, Klaus, do you see who it is?”

Klaus turned around.

“Oh, yes, we reconnected twenty minutes before you got here. Hi!”

He waved to her with a hand that read “hello,” and she waved back. Allison beamed up at Claire, and opened her arms. Claire ran over and sat next to her mother, throwing her arms around her.

Ben sat back down, smiling.

“You’ve gotta meet her husband later,” Klaus chuckled. “Funniest guy.”

“Wow!” Ben exclaimed a little sadly. “Kids?”

“Kids...Grandkids...Great-grandkids….Great-great grandkids… and more, I think.”

“Wow…” Ben said again, the smile disappearing from his face as the euphoria faded away, a sharp pang of regret setting in its place. Maybe if things had happened differently, he would’ve lived to meet Claire’s great-great grandkids. Or maybe things happened exactly as they always would have. Maybe no one believes they’ve lived long enough.

She was pedaling over the hill, marking the end of the good times, once again. Ben watched Her approach, a shadow on the hill, vaguely aware of the commotion happening to his right.

“Vanya, switch seats with me.” Klaus was saying, already out of his seat.

“Uh, sure. Okay.” Vanya shrugged, and slid out of the way as Klaus practically sat on her.

“Ben,” Klaus whispered, and leaned over, even though his brother was already looking at him.

“Klaus?”  
I...just wanted you to know…” Klaus was fidgeting with the corners of his still unbuttoned shirt. “Whatever happens, I feel really lucky to have someone who would search the ends of the universe for me, I really appreciate it…. And I’m sorry I shot you.”

Ben smiled at the ground, then at his brother.

“Also…” Klaus started, and sighed, like it pained him to find the words to speak his mind. “You’re the best brother I could ever ask for. I love you-”

“Nope.” Ben interrupted. “No, you don’t mean to say that. You’re just emotional, because you think there’s no way you can win this. But you’re wrong. So  _ when _ we win, if you still want to say it-”

Ben shrugged, seemingly indifferent. But his smile finally reached the corners of his eyes.

“-say it then.”

Klaus smiled at him with sad eyes, and nodded slowly.

“Okay,” he said softly. “Okay. I’ll do that.”

She was finally almost in front of them, riding Her bike unsteadily through the grass.

“For fuck’s sake…” Ben heard Five growl. “Just  _ teleport _ !”

“Okay, okay,” Luther held his hands up to Five, trying to calm him. “It’s okay.”

“Don’t touch me!” Five swatted his hands away.

She stopped Her bike, and threw it carefully into the grass beside Her.

“Are we ready to begin?” 

She didn’t wait for a reply, but stretched an arm to the side, like she was doing half a jumping-jack. Vergil hobbled slowly over from the other side of where they were all seated, and hastily dropped the file into her outstretched hand.

“Thank you, Vergil.” She paused, and examined the contents of the file.

“Let’s see…. We are gathered here today for Klaus Hargreeves, a soul that has been stranded on a post-apocalyptic Earth for the past five-hundred years. Klaus’s adoptive siblings; Vanya, Ben, Five, Diego, Allison, and Luther, have searched for him. Now that they’ve found him, they would like to convince me to keep him here, and I’ve granted them permission to do so. The jury will vote on whether they believe Klaus to be worthy, or unworthy, but the final decision will remain mine.”

“What jury?” Ben whispered to Klaus. 

“Ah, for fuck’s sake!” Klaus whined loudly. He pointed out in the field to their left. Rows of bleachers had appeared, with dozens, maybe even hundreds of people wearing, - what appeared to be - light blue pajamas.

“Is that…  _ Destiny’s Children _ ?” Ben groaned and turned back to Klaus.

“We’re fucked.” He stated, matter-of-factly.

“It was good while it lasted…” Klaus nodded in agreement, shaking Ben’s hand sarcastically.

“Hargreeves,” She said, turning to them. “You’re up first.”

The seven siblings exchanged looks with one another, uncertain of what to do. Ben looked at Her, and waited for further instructions that never came. Eventually, Luther raised his hand. She nodded at him to speak.

“I’m sorry,” He chuckled. “There must be some misunderstanding. You’d like us to just pick one of us to speak?”

“Preferably someone who can suggest a different perspective on one of Klaus’s memories.” She shrugged. “You did go through all of his memories, yeah?”

Luther exchanged a look with Five. Five nodded discreetly, and raised his eyebrows at Luther.

“Yes..?” Luther said, nodding at his younger-older brother and turning back to Her. “I mean,  _ yes _ . Of course.”

“Good.” She said, shuffling the contents of the file. “Then, there should be no issue.”

Luther turned back to his siblings, and whispered urgently. 

“Guys, what do we do?”

She sighed and looked out at the field, impatiently, rolling her eyes. 

“I’ll go,” Allison piped up loudly, pushing past Luther. She looked at Klaus, who looked at her. She nodded curtly and he smiled gratefully, and then she hurried towards where She stood.

“Um, where shall I stand?”

“You can sit here.” She waved her hand, and a podium appeared before the group.

Allison nodded, and took a seat at the podium. It was a grand, intimidating thing to look at, and made whoever sat behind it look small. It was made of dark marble, with golden linings, that reminded Ben just how serious this trial was.

Allison cleared her throat.

“Good morning, everyone. Thank you for considering my brother, Klaus Hargreeves, for eternal life.”

Allison looked down, and sighed deeply, collecting her thoughts. The Hargreeves siblings and their allies gazed back up at her. Elliot and Luther smiled encouragingly, but Ben wasn’t as sure.

“The memory I visited - or, I mean, just one of the many. Of all the memories we went through, the one that stood out to me the most...was from when my brother fought in the Vietnam War. I know Klaus hasn’t always made morally-sound, selfless choices… but this memory showed me how much he can love. He met a man in the war, a man named Dave, who I hope to meet someday. And I saw my brother, as he went through hell for this man he loved. I mean-”

Allison broke off, and looked down for a moment. Ben could hear her take a deep shaky breath, and could see Klaus’s round eyes shining with fear. Ben took his brother’s hand and smiled at him as Allison continued.

“ He’s… done a lot of things in his own self interest… lots of things, that I know he regrets more than anything-”  
She looked slowly up at Diego, who was watching her with a look of guarded vulnerability.

“-And...he’d do anything to make it right. Anything. He’s been irresponsible, and cold, and… a little self-serving, yes. But I assure you, he can do better. He wants to. He’s always meant well, and he really wants to make everything right. I hope he can prove that to you.”

Ben exchanged an uncomfortable look with Klaus, as his brother squeezed his hand tighter. Allison took a deep breath, and looked back out at the audience.

“I don’t know anyone who loved as deeply and as widely as Klaus. Even when he wasn’t at his best, he tried to support me and my siblings, and always brought a smile to our faces. I’d ask you all to _please_ listen with open hearts and minds, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Thank you.”  
Allison stepped down from the podium, and quickly took a seat next to Vanya, tears gathering in her eyes. Klaus reached the hand that wasn’t holding Ben over to Allison, and she took it gratefully.

“Hey, that was great,” Vanya smiled.

“Thank you.” Allison returned her smile, but her eyes were shining with a deep sadness. Vanya looked at her seriously, before looking over at Her.

“Uh,” Vanya spoke up, with the confidence of a fish on a farm. “Luther and I will go next.”  
She nodded to Luther who hesitated, then nodded back, surprised. 

“Just one second,” Vanya whispered, turning to Klaus. She fished in her jacket pocket, and pulled out the golden key. It was rusted, and clearly very old. About the size of her fist.

“Here,” Vanya said, reaching her hand out to Klaus.

“Oh, uh, danke!” Klaus exclaimed, and let go of Ben and Allison to examine the key.

“It’s a long story how I found it,” she explained quickly, as Luther made his way to the podium. “But I have a gut-feeling that you should hold onto it.”

Klaus bowed his head, and Vanya scurried up to the stand. The smooth top of the podium was too small for Vanya, and she had to strain her neck to be seen. It was too tall for Luther, however, and he hunched his shoulders to fit more comfortably in the small booth.

“Um, Luther and I actually weren’t present at the memory searching,” Vanya began, shifting uncomfortably next to Luther. “But I heard… I heard there was a lot of it.”  
Vanya cleared her throat, and looked up at Luther. He looked down at her unsurely.

“Um,” She continued, her voice shaking. “But we were off doing a little research of our own, by traveling through the past.”

As she spoke, their sister gained confidence. Soon she was spitting out the words like some twisted politician.

“Many of you already know that our father manipulated and abused us, he tortured us, and turned us against one another. We were alone in our trauma, and perhaps all those years processing it alone was what did the real damage. Or reinforced it, anyway. My siblings and I all dealt with things in our own destructive ways. And maybe we’re all horrible people, because we’ve done horrible things. I know I have. But we didn’t start out bad. We were victimized by an evil man, Klaus more than any of us. 

“It’s not an excuse, but it is a consideration. So, when you look at my brother and see a drug addict, think of the man who broke his senses so much that drugs were required to ease the pain. When you see a selfish man, see the  _ real  _ selfish man who deprived a child of love. When you see dysfunctional,  _ I _ see a man who ran an abusive household. I see my brother’s good heart. And I see the man  _ pulling his strings _ . If anyone should be damned, it’s Reginald Hargreeves. It’s-”

“Thank you, Vanya.” She interrupted. “That’s enough now. Take a seat.”

Vanya begrudgingly sat down, avoiding the proding eyes of her siblings, tears welling in her eyes. Klaus reached over, and slipped his hand in hers, intertwining their fingers.

Ben watched them, and sighed deeply, thinking. Before he really knew what he was doing, he stood up and walked to the podium, feeling the grass on his feet, between his toes. He inhaled the crisp, perfect air and exhaled, feeling alive. As he stepped onto the podium, and sat down in the plush, velvet chair, he met Klaus’s deep gaze. He could see an eternity in his brother’s hopeful eyes. And in that moment, Ben was sure that all was not lost.

He looked out at the crowd.

“Hello,” he said, shifting in the chair. “My name is Ben Hargreeves, and I died when I was too young to really know what I had lost. When I woke up as a ghost, my brother was the only one who could see me, so I stuck around, haunting Klaus as a ghost for over a decade. That doesn't sound like a long time here, but it’s a long time when you’re human. For a while there, I thought I knew him better than anyone, better than he knew himself. But that was the wrong way to think about things. Because, really, it only takes a day to know Klaus. Everyone on this field is sure that they _know_ Klaus. But it takes the better half of a millennium to _understand_ him.”  
He sighed deeply, collecting his thoughts. He didn’t dare look at his siblings, especially not Klaus.

“She, no one understands like I do why you don’t like him. Trust me. But no one understands more than I do why he deserves to stay. Klaus’s self-destructive nature is a coping method for everything that was thrown at him all his life. He’s had more to deal with than any once-human soul I’ve ever come across. And as Vanya said, it’s no excuse. But it is a reason to look at the good as well as the bad. He’s a kind person, and he has a good heart.”

Ben shifted to look to the side.

“Um, people of the Jury. You probably don’t know me...but I know you. I was a part of Destiny’s Children for all of its founding years. Wherever Klaus was, I was. I know how you were lied to, and cheated. How you threw your lives away for a man who couldn’t care less. And there’s no excuse for how he treated you. Just like there’s no excuse for how dad treated Klaus. And there was no excuse for whoever hurt dad, and turned him into...well, what he was. And there’s no excuse for any of us. Vanya shouldn’t have started the apocalypse, Five let his arrogance blind everything he did, Luther was loyal to a fault, Allison manipulated the people who trusted her the most, and Diego has spent five-hundred years tormenting his sister for a mistake that she is so sorry for. And I… I gave up the one thing that I’ll never get back. But we’re trying to break this chain here. We’re trying to start a new, non-toxic way of existing, and treating others. Rather than continuing this cycle of abuse, we’re trying to break it. And that starts with letting Klaus stay.”

Ben risked a quick look at his siblings, and caught Allison’s eye. She was looking up at her brother, with her jaw wide open. Claire was looking nervously from her mother to her uncle. Ben looked back at Destiny’s Children.

“So, what do you say? Will you help up?”

A man with perpetually thinning hair and thick glasses stood up from the bleachers. His blue pajamas were a size too small, exposing his pale wrists and ankles. Ben recognized him immediately.

“BOOOO!” Keechie cried, in his nasally voice. “ _ BOOOO! _ ”

Other members of Destiny’s Children joined in, chanting and screaming their disapproval.

“Okay,” She shouted. “Okay! I SAID  _ ENOUGH! _ ”

Destiny’s Children quieted, and slowly sat back down. Ben looked helplessly at Klaus, who had his eyes closed, and his lips slightly parted. He was breathing in the air, and trembling slightly. Vanya had her arm around him, and he leaned into her, devastated.

“Thank you, Ben.” She waved him back to his seat with one small, childish hand. He obeyed, and shuffled slowly out from behind the stand and back to his seat, feeling like his feet weren’t really his own.

“I’ve made my final decision,” She said, only visible chin-up behind the podium. 

“ _ WHAT?” _ Five shrieked, the sound of his shrill voice piering the air. “What was that? Two minutes?”

“It was approximately eight minutes, and it was a pointless eight minutes at that. You rambled on about empty speeches, vague memories with no real backing. You did not do as I asked, and the jury has spoken. I’ve seen enough.”

Five slouched in his seat, baring his teeth at Her, but he didn’t dare attempt another argument. He knew what Klaus and Ben already knew. She cleared Her throat before carrying on.

“I’m afraid you Hargreeves have miserably failed. You’ve completely misunderstood why Klaus Hargreeves wasn’t allowed into the afterlife. He’s not banned from this place because he’s annoying, or a drug addict, though both of those are true. He’s banned from here because he can control the dead,  _ which you all are _ .”

She gestured out at the crowd, like it was obvious. 

“Wait.” Ben said, almost laughing at the absurdity. “So Klaus isn’t banned for being a bad person. He’s banned because he’s too powerful?”  
“Precisely.” She said coldly, folding Her hands over the stand, and looking down at them with apathetic eyes.

“But - what about the memories?” Luther asked, flabbergasted. 

“The assignment wasn’t to prove that Klaus wasn’t all bad. It was to stop him from developing the power of evocation.” She raised Her voice over the various protests that were beginning to bubble up from the Hargreeves siblings. “If he can control the dead, I can’t let him into the kingdom of the dead.”

Klaus shot out of his seat.

“Wait!” He shouted, his eyes widening with a newly found surge of hope. “Wait! I lost my power when I died. I can’t do that anymore!”

“Sure you can!” She said, looking down at him in surprise. “There just weren’t any ghosts left on Earth to see and manipulate. They’re all over here.”

“Wait, but, if you gave me this power, can’t you take it away?” He pleaded, gazing up at Her with vulnerable eyes.

“What gives you that idea?” She snorted, looking at him curiously.

“Well… what if I promise not to use my powers?” He offered, looking up at her for a mercy that she didn’t return.

“Klaus,” She sighed. “We all know you’re too much of a loose canon for that.”

“But-” He protested, growing desperate. “I didn’t even know I still had them!”

“Klaus, sit down.”

“No, please! We can figure out how to take them away. There’s got to be a way.”

“Take a seat. This is a warning.”

“At least take Dave!” Klaus cried, and burst into tears. “Do that much. And take away my consciousness.”

“Klaus!”

“I don’t want to feel alone.”

“ _ SIT DOWN KLAUS!” _

“NO!” He screamed, and the air trembled with a force that blew Ben’s hair back. Suddenly, the bleachers that held up Destiny’s Children collapsed, sending the former cult crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs and pajamas. They screamed and scattered, Keechie reciting bible verses in a fit of hysteria, and the cult frantically headed for the trees.

“NO!” Klaus screamed again, this time sending the benches crumbling. Vanya reached out for Diego, whose quick reflexes kept her from tumbling backwards. Luther and Allison weren’t so lucky, as Five teleported behind where the bench had been just a few seconds before. Ben landed on his back, and stared up at Klaus in horror.

Next to go was the podium - it trembled and and broke apart, leaving rubble where the elegant marble used to be. 

Ben had never seen Her look genuinely surprised, but now She stumbled backwards, apparently at a total loss. As he reached for his brother, a giant hand grabbed Ben’s shoulder and pulled him up and away in one swift tug.

“Come on!” Luther said, as the ground started to shake beneath them. The remaining six siblings ran across the field behind the allies and Destiny’s Children. Ben caught a glimpse of Jill through the crowd, who was tugging at her ears, and nervously quoting the Backstreet Boys.

“Stop!” Vanya shouted suddenly, breathing heavily. “We can’t leave him. You guys never left me, and it saved me.”

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere, Vanya.”

Diego had halved the distance between his siblings and Klaus seemingly before the words were even out of his mouth. To Ben’s surprise, Diego slowed down once he neared Klaus rather than speeding up in preparation for a fight. He was going to reason with Klaus, not attack him! It was shockingly mature for his knife-happy brother.

But as he approached, the trembling earth began to crack like ice beneath his feet. Diego hurled himself towards Klaus, and reached out for a steady hand.

Ben froze and time seemed to slow down as several of his siblings cried out for Diego too late. As soon as he touched Klaus’s shoulder, something happened to Diego. Allison ran for their brother, who was glowing softly and beginning to break away.

“Diego, no!” Allison screamed, Five on her heels. 

Luther was holding Vanya back and trying to console her, as her own unsteady powers enhanced the destruction. Ben began to push forward, slow and uncertain, in utter shock at the scene before him.

He watched as Allison caught Diego rocked his fading figure, tears streaming down her face and onto her brother’s fading face. Vergil stood opposite of Allison, and waved his dark robes around in a fit of hysteria, like a cackling witch at the height of a spell. It looked as if the earth was swallowing Klaus, a small ditch forming around his feet as he slowly sunk into the softening Earth. Five was at the edge of the ditch, reaching out an arm and trying to coerce a vacant-eyed Klaus to take his hand.

_ Oh my GOD! _

The events of the last few minutes finally caught up with Ben, and he broke into a full sprint. 

She arose from the ruins of the podium, and calmly, yet surely, walked towards Klaus. She hopped into the ditch and approached Klaus, who was now up to his waist in soil. Ben screamed a warning to Klaus, but it was too late. She placed a hand onto his shoulder, and they both disappeared in a blink. Ben skidded to a halt at the place Klaus used to be, searching the ditch for any sign of him. 

“He’s not here.” Ben called up to Five, with a knowing-sadness. He swallowed hard, feeling a knot forming in his throat. Five nodded slowly.

The silence was loud and noticeable after all the noise. The only sounds left were the last effects of Vanya’s powers, and Allison’s sobs in the open air.

“No!” She cried, holding just the remaining shell of Diego as he faded away. “I’m sorry Diego. I’m so sorry.”

Luther approached the scene, Vanya effortlessly slung over his shoulder like a satchel. He extended an arm to Ben, who gratefully accepted, and stepped out of the ditch.

Ben looked at his siblings; Allison in the grass, her empty arms stretched in front of her; Five leaning against the remains of their bench, an expression of total disbelief painted across his young features; Luther hugging a sobbing Vanya, tears gathering in his own eyes. One brother shorter than when they died, two brothers shorter than when they were alive.

Vergil had vanished, along with everyone else, no doubt running panicked through the surrounding woods. And a boiling horror bubbled up from the depths of his stomach, and he blinked the tears from his eyes, turning over one cruel and persistent thought:

_ Maybe it was always going to be this way. _


	7. The Funeral

**Part 7:** The Funeral

**Nowhere in Time.**

Klaus woke up in the middle of a grassy clearing. It was different than the one he had previously been in, the petrified ground was hard and cold beneath him. He groaned, and stretched his limbs out to shake the stiffness from his body. He recoiled in surprise when his foot collided with something solid. He looked up. It was a gravestone, the writing unintelligible. 

The grief of the day came rushing back to him, and dread weighed heavy on his chest as he remembered the last look on Diego’s face. He sat up shakily, and put a hand over his mouth to silence himself. Klaus moaned, defeated, and dropped his forehead into the palm of his hand. She had been right all along. All the suffering he had faced, the maddening loneliness, nights where he would’ve done  _ anything  _ to see his family again. All of it was justified. She was right. Wherever he was now, he was sure it was where he belonged.

A shrill, desperate scream cut through his thoughts. Klaus scurried to his feet, his heart pounding hollowly in his chest. He looked out across the graveyard, and could make out two distinct figures hurrying along. One was tall and dark. He walked with a limp that Klaus knew all too well. The other was being dragged by the first, too small and self-centered to realize it wasn’t his fault.

“Please dad!” Klaus heard a younger version of himself cry. “I think - I think I’m over my fear!”

“Nonsense, boy.” Reginald said without looking back at him or slowing his brisk walk.

“Please don’t do this!” The child gazed up at him with wide, pleading eyes. “I’ll do anything! Just don’t leave me out here!”

Reginald stopped, suddenly, and grinned slyly at young Klaus. The boy looked up at him with big, vulnerable eyes.

“I’m not leaving you out here, Number Four.” Reginald chuckled, a sound that still sent shivers up Klaus’s spine. “I’m locking you in  _ here _ !”

Reginald gestured to the large Mausoleum on his right, impatiently, like it should have been obvious. Young Klaus burst into tears again.

Number Four wailed in hysteria as Reginald pulled a golden key from his coat pocket, one that was a little smaller than the width of his hand.

Klaus gasped, and reached into his own pocket for the key that Vanya had slipped to him during the trial.

Reginald grasped the back of the child’s neck and pushed his through the gaping jaws of that damned thing he spent too much time in.

“Please dad!” Klaus heard himself beg from the other side of the heavy stone door as Reginald heaved it shut. “I’ll train extra hard from now on, I promise.”  
“I know you will.” Reginald said flatly and forced the key into the lock, turning it with a booming click. “Fear is the best motivator, Number Four.”

His father pocketed the key, and limped across the frozen ground without looking back towards the cries of the petrified boy.

Klaus turned his own key over in his hand and listened distraughtly as his younger self pounded and screamed against the heavy stone door.

“Please help, somebody help me  _ please!” _ Number Four sobbed as Klaus jammed the key in the lock with a determined sharpness. He pulled the door aside, less gracefully and with more effort than his ailing father. He saw his younger self curled into a corner with his hands over his ears and his eyes squeezed shut. He rocked lightly on the floor, gasping for air between tears. Klaus slowly descended down the staircase, remembering this memory. Ghosts screamed and lunged at him, pleading for their souls.

_ I can’t help you! Please, go away! _

He wasn’t sure if it was him or his younger self who had thought this. It hardly mattered anymore.

“Klaus?” He called quietly, and kicked himself. Of course he wouldn’t recognize the name. 

“Number Four?” He said again, this time a little louder and a little clearer.

The boy looked up and rubbed his red eyes, leaning into the corner. 

“Who are you?” He cried, trying and failing to sound brave. “What do you want?”

A ghost jumped in Klaus’s way and bared her rotten teeth at him. Her overgrown nails scratched the air as close to his face as possible. But he didn’t flinch now, or even notice her really.

Instead he continued down the dark stairs until his bare feet met the dirt below. The ground was solidifying in the freezing weather, and the cold dirt sent a shock up Klaus’s bare feet. But he continued in the dark, determined to hold the boy’s pleading eyes. 

“Are you a ghost?” Number Four called out to him, answering his own question. If the man in front of him was a ghost, he’d already know. “I warn you - stay back!”

Klaus kneeled down carefully in front of the boy, so that his eyes were level with his younger self.

“It’s okay.” He said, as gently as he could. But he didn’t have to force any of the softness in his voice. The kindness came naturally as he finally saw himself as who he had once been. A trusting, innocent, nameless child, who was deeply hurt and betrayed and on the brink of an unrelenting spiral.

Klaus slowly reached out, but quickly backed away when the boy flinched. He raised his hands in front of him, palms-up to show the boy that he meant no harm. Then he reached out for Number Four even slower, and the boy willingly embraced him.

He carried his younger self across the graveyard, glad to brace the cold as the boy finally got to rest in his arms. He laid him down in the soft grass beneath a big oak tree, and looked down at his exhausted younger self in pity. 

“If this is my new hell,” he said. “Then they failed. Because I will gladly carry you, forever.”

Number Four looked up at him, aware that the man was speaking, but too worn down to make any kind of sense of his words.

“Is that so?” She asked, approaching him with a sad smile, welcoming the grass on her bare feet. “I hope you mean that.”

“I do.” He said quietly, and paused before adding, “Everytime.”

“And here I thought you were going to ask me to wipe you from existence.” She said with a hint of playfulness in Her voice. “You know, that’s a noble idea, but martyrdom doesn’t suit you well.”

Klaus looked down at the boy again, his young face relaxing as he fell asleep. It was far more peaceful to watch than Klaus ever remembered feeling at that age. And all the horror and trauma hadn’t caught up with the young boy yet. He was still a child.

“No,” Klaus said, and looked up at Her with a sad-certainty. “I think there’s been enough undoing as it is.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” She said with a deep sincerity that he’d never seen in Her before. He smiled and closed his eyes, his heart aching for Diego, and Ben, and everyone he had left behind now and in life.

She suddenly perked up.

“Oh, I’m not keeping you here, by the way. I just wanted you to do this. But whether you carry yourself once or four trillion times, it would hardly make a difference.”

“Oh,” Klaus raised his eyebrows, questioningly.

“Yeah, I’m sending you back to Earth.” She said a little too cheerily, and slouched with realization. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He said, shaking his head. “It’s more than I’ve earned.”

“I wouldn’t sell yourself short,” She said, smirking, and he smiled shallowly in return.

“I’ll go...anywhere you want.” He said, slowly moving towards Her. “But please, please,  _ please _ help Diego, Lila, and Dave. Please.”

“Dave?” She said, almost bursting into laughter, a reaction that caused his head to bow and his cheeks to turn red. “Come on, Klaus. You’re not still hung up on that? You know the truth as well as I do.”

Klaus looked at her, his eyebrows furrowing and meeting between his eyes. His heart was thumping in his chest, but he was determined to hold her all-knowing gaze.

“And, there’s nothing I can do about Diego and Lila.” She said, her laughter fading, and a serious expression coming over her face. She nodded towards the boy sleeping beside him. “But there might be something  _ you  _ can do.” 

She winked at Klaus and approached Number Four. Suddenly She looked older, and briefly reminded him of Grace. 

“Wake up, Darling.” She said in a voice so sweet, it felt as if someone had put a cigarette out on him.

“Listen to this man carefully.” 

She looked up at Klaus, and smiled. He looked up at Her and returned Her smile, despite the tears fighting their way towards his eyes.

“I’ll be back when you’re done.” She said, and took one last look at him before She disappeared.

Number Four was sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He looked up at Klaus with a wondrous expression.

“Who  _ are _ you?” he asked, as he lazily crossed his feet underneath him, scuffing up his academy shoes in the process.

“I’m a friend.” Klaus said, and took a deep breath to keep his voice steady. “I’m here for you, and I just wanted to tell you that…”

Klaus looked at the boy’s wide eyes, already clouding over with a glare of distrust.

“-That...It’s not your fault what your father or anyone else does to you, it’s not. But you are at fault for whatever you do to yourself.”

Number Four was looking at him with furrowed eyebrows, trying to make sense of what the man in front of him had just said.

“Yeah, okay, I guess I was never good at this. Just… don’t blame yourself for what’s happened, but you do have to try and try and try to be good. In the wise words of icons Sonny and Cher, ‘A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done.’”

Klaus took a breath and continued before his younger self could ask questions.

“Now, I’m going to tell you some things to help you out in the future. A lot of it is going to be really hard to understand, but I need you to listen very closely…”


	8. The Eulogy

**Part 8:** The Eulogy

**Earth, the following morning.**

Klaus woke up on a dirt road that ran on for miles and miles. He looked to his right and saw big, beautiful trees. He looked to his left, and found that he was at the top of a tall cliff overlooking the ocean.

He was almost sure he was back on Earth, but ran a fingernail roughly along the skin of his arm to take sure. The skin there turned pink and raised, as a thin line of blood swelled up along it.

_ Earth!  _

“Oh, I’ve missed you, you beautiful bastard!” Klaus cried, wiping the tears from his eyes, and slapping the ground beside him.

“And to what corner of this beautiful rock have we spawned in today?” He asked as he stumbled to his feet, and looked out at the sunny ocean before him.

“I’m thinking… Somewhere in Europe. Like England.”

“You’re wrong,” a familiar voice said behind him. Dave. “It’s California. If it were England it would be raining.”

“No.” Klaus sighed, turning around to face Dave. “That’s offensive! You shouldn’t generalize like that. Just because it sometimes rains in England doesn’t mean it  _ always  _ rains in England.”

“Huh?” Dave asked, squinting, but quickly shook his head as he decided it didn’t matter. 

“Well, look at the dark, gritty sand down there.” Dave gestured towards the beach way down below. “It sure as hell ain’t Mexico.”

“You need to leave.” Klaus said, surprised by the sternness in his own voice. “You can’t be here!”

Dave stepped forward and raised his chin so that his eyes met Klaus’s.  
“Are you gonna stop me?”

“Yes.”

“ _ Yes _ ?” Dave scoffed, putting his hands on his hips. “Okay, why don’t you give it a go?”

“No,” Klaus sighed, turning away to look at the beautiful beach next to them. “I don’t have to.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?”

“Because I don’t have to.” Klaus chuckled. But a lump was forming in the back of his throat. 

“I know the truth about you. I’ve always known, I can just see it clearly now.”

Dave laughed for a while, clapping his hands for effect. Hunched over and cackling like a goddamn hyena. Finally he straightened himself and looked at Klaus.

“And what truth is that?”

“You’re not real.” Klaus said flatly, a pit in his stomach. “You never have been. Not since life, anyway.”

Dave looked at Klaus as he had only once before. In the war, as he died in Klaus’s arms. And just like his vision had been blurred by tears then, the same thing was happening now. 

“You’ve never been here with me!” Klaus cried, a strain in his voice. He hastily wiped at his watering eyes, and let out a shuddering breath.

“I just couldn’t handle being alone.”

The image of Dave before him started to shimmer, and he blinked the tears away to get a better look. Dave seemed to be fading from his view, the image before him wobbling and shaking in and out of his reality.

“No, wait!” Klaus cried hoarsely, stumbling forward. “Please don’t leave me!” 

He rushed towards Dave, arms extended, but he was met with empty air. The image he had held onto with a fierce, desperate grip for five-hundred years was gone in a matter of seconds.

“I don’t want to be alone!” Klaus wailed, falling to his knees. He dug his nails into the ground and clenched the dirt in his aching fists.

“ _ I don’t want to be alone! _ ”

He rolled onto his back and pulled at his blouse, sobbing. The devastation bubbling up in the center of his chest was too much to bear. He moaned and cried miserably, utter panic and despair consuming him like a hunger. And now, hunger was no longer his great fear.

It took a few hours for the hysteria to wear off, he thought, though there was no real way of telling. And afterwards Klaus sat up, and stared in a trance out at the ocean. Once the sun set over the lovely waves, he sat watching the moon cast silver light over the dark water. It was a big, full moon, and he had a totally unobstructed view of it. It made him feel like he was at the edge of the world. So fulfilled and so alone all at once.

He remembered kneeling in the water when he was alive, and letting the waves take him as their own. He would be able to believe that he was insignificant, that he was a part of the world. Now he was sure that neither of those were true.

And when the sun began to rise again, Klaus took his time getting to his feet. His body ached from the stillness, his head hurt from the lack of sleep. He was less hungry than he would’ve thought, and that was an unexpected silver lining. But today wasn’t a day for silver linings. He stood on his sore feet, and started on the dirt road with no particular destination in mind. He tried to imagine what an eternity of this would be like, and felt that old familiar dread bubble up inside.

_ No. _ He thought firmly to himself, and paused for a moment, eyes closed.

He took a deep breath, and didn’t hear his father’s voice telling him to breathe this time.

“One day at a time.” He exhaled, and started forward.

Days went by on Earth, but there was no one there to count them but Klaus, who had lost count. He journeyed across America, determined to see every sight there was to see in the country. He decided to stay alive this time, eating anything he came across. Grass, leaves, stray cans of food. Sometimes food was hard to find, due to all the ruins and destruction, but it was made easier by the total lack of any competition. Dave - or at least his memory of Dave - had been right. That beach was in California. He eventually lost count of all the years he had spent travelling around North America, but never stopped trying to treasure every sight he came across. He saw strange deserts and beautiful forests, canyons that took his breath away. The ruins of cities reminded Klaus of other people, which made him think of his family, so he mostly avoided those. He very much enjoyed the sight of the ocean, the only thing on Earth that felt human to him. But no sight stayed with him quite as much as that cliff over the ocean. He made a deal with himself that he would return to the land that used to be California, and try to find it again. Maybe he’d just watch the waves and the moon over the dark water for the rest of eternity. 

Sometimes he thought he saw his brothers and sisters in the ruins. A colourful fabric would remind him of one of Allison’s dresses. A particularly loud and angry crow would him of Number Five, just for a moment. He saw the shape of Luther’s bulky shoulders in the rocky mountains, and Vanya’s white-violin eyes in the rising moon. He eventually came to realize that one of the reasons why he loved the ocean so much was that it reminded him of Ben. Not because of any tentacled-creatures, but because of the calming-yet-determined quality it had about it. It calmed him, but also sparked a glimmer of life inside of him on the days where he felt like all was lost. Klaus thought, if the ocean ever stilled, that would be the day he died.

On particularly difficult days, he’d fake it. All of a sudden, he’d stop in his tracks and fall onto the ground. There, he’d lay still, his eyes wide open for as long as he could possibly hold them. Then he’d clear his mind and stare distantly ahead, his eyes going unfocused. He’d like to imagine an alien spaceship coming across Earth right then, and scanning it for signs of life.

_ Anything?  _ Captain Green Man would demand, pounding his fist on some sleek chair.

A scrawny, tech-savvy alien would frantically poke around at a huge dashboard with a million buttons on it. Then he’d check the big screen in front of him and swivel around to face Captain Green Man, pushing up his three-lense glasses for his three eyes.

_ Nothing sir! _ He’d squeak.  _ No sign of life anywhere on this planet! _

But then Klaus would blink his dry eyes, and be forced to come down to reality. He’d then take his time getting to his feet, sometimes stopping where he was for a while more and just dreaming. And then eventually he would keep moving.

The worst sights were the ones that reminded him of Diego. Any cutlery he spotted lying in the dirt, even if it wasn’t knives, would send memories of his brother rushing through his mind. Old food trucks - particularly ice cream trucks -, ropes, broken glass, and the remains of law enforcement buildings. Any item of dark fabric, the occasional shadow here and there. If he was being honest with himself - which he rarely was these days - most things reminded him of Diego. But when he did let himself dwell on the memory of his brother, an insurmountable grief welled up inside of him, and he was forced to shoulder away the guilt in order to survive and keep pushing forward. He’d think of the cliffside he woke up on, and think of where he’d head after that. Maybe he’d start on South America after he returned to California. 

Travelling through the middle of the U.S. was his second least favourite thing, after travelling through old cities. Though, at least the cities often had food. The frequent flat, barren land he came across in the midwest often left him undistracted, and alone with his thoughts.

Night fell, and he collapsed on the side of the road, exhausted. He thought he might as well sleep here, it’s not as if he were likely to come across a house in this barren land. He turned his head to the side, and his heart fluttered as a colourful piece of fabric caught his eye.

_ Allison? _

_ No,  _ he told himself firmly. It was a flag. Just a flag.

Days went by, and he kept dragging on through the barren land. He knew there were  _ some _ parts of the central US that weren’t totally boring...but where?

The days felt long, and the nights felt longer, as Klaus began to lose sleep. He was running out of food, and there was nothing except barren wastelands in sight. The situation felt all too familiar to him, and the pangs of hunger that steadily grew stronger weren’t helping him. So he kept going forward through the night, singing quietly to keep himself company. By morning, he knew he was totally lost. This wasn’t just Ohio. He made a wrong turn into a desert somewhere. He kicked himself, furious for not sticking to the roads. And as he looked around helplessly, he grimaced at the thought of starving again. As exhausted as he was, he kept moving.

Klaus sang all his favourite songs as he walked, and crossed his arms to keep himself warm. He sang Beyonce. The Backstreet Boys. Ariana Grande. Sonny and Cher. 

His stomach felt like it was caving in on itself, and he nervously fidgeted with the knife in his pocket, mentally preparing himself for what he might have to do. He was  _ not _ going to starve again, no matter what it took.

Just before the last of Klaus’s energy had left him, he collapsed onto the wild grass and tried to catch his breath.

“You…. are… the … dancing queen!” he wheezed, running out of breath.

“Young and… sweet. Only  _ seventeen _ !”

He rolled onto his back, exhausted from lack of sleep and weak with hunger. He felt the knife in his pocket, and pulled it out to examine it.

Well, he had lasted a long time. It was time to reset. He hoped to wake up near the beautiful cliffside, but knew better than to pray for it. He raised the knife squarely above him, and prepared to plunge it into his own flesh. A voice in the distance stopped him.

“Hang on!” A familiar voice shouted. “For fuck’s  _ sake _ , you maniac! Hang on!”

_ Oh, fuck no! _

Klaus was over letting imaginary friends hang around for company. He would  _ not _ disrespect his brother’s memory like this.

Diego’s hand closed around the hilt of the knife, and yanked it from Klaus’s hands. 

_ Weird _ . He thought.  _ Memory Dave could never do that. _

“I’ll take that!” His brother shouted, but he smiled and tucked the knife into his belt along with all the others. “It’s better suited on me, anyway.”

Diego placed a styrofoam box and a bottle of water on the ground next to his dying brother.

“Here,” he said. “You take these.”

Klaus sat up, clutching his throbbing head. He twisted the bottle open, and raised it warily to his cracked lips. 

“It’s real water.” Diego said, as he watched his brother slowly raise the bottle as if he were worried it might be poison. “It’s - Klaus, it’s real water, buddy.”

This made him drink even slower, but when the water finally hit his mouth, he quickly tipped the bottle back and drank greedily.

“Take it easy!” A different, but equally familiar voice laughed. Her sundress was waving in the slight breeze.

Klaus dropped the near-empty bottle and reached for the styrofoam box. He opened it, and found a freshly baked stack of waffles, somehow still warm.

“WFUTS GOIM OM?!” Klaus demanded, stuffing as much waffle as he could fit into his mouth as Vanya, Luther, and Five caught up and stood behind Diego and Allison.

“Is he okay?” Luther asked, genuinely concerned.

“Yeah,” Five snorted. “I think he’s fine.”

“What did you say?” Allison leaned forward, looking at her lost brother.

“It’s okay,” Diego grinned, putting a hand up in front of Allison. “I speak Klaus.”

Diego reached for Klaus’s sandal, much to everyone's confusion.

“He said his foot’s growing long.” Diego said, looking down at Klaus’s bare foot, perplexed. “There’s nothing wrong with your foot, buddy.”

“I think he asked ‘what’s going on’” Vanya said hesitantly. “But I’m probably wrong. Your’s sounded right.”

Klaus spat out the fresh mouthful of waffle he had just stuffed into his face.

“What the _hap_ is _fuckening?!”_ Klaus shouted, snatching his sandal back. “I think I’ve completely lost it!”  
“You have _not_!” Diego said, spitting out the last word like he was deeply offended. “It’s us!”

“That’s exactly what my fake brother would say…” Klaus whispered, staring at Diego suspiciously through squinted eyes.

“Okay!” Five shouted, pushing to the front of his siblings. “Who the  _ fuck _ let Diego do the talking?”

“Because I ran here faster than you, old man!” Diego shouted, whipping around to face him.

“Hey!” Allison exclaimed at Five. “He’s doing his best!”

“Goddamn right I am!” Diego growled at Five, high-fiving Allison.

“Okay,” Five began in a hushed voice. “So after a long time of begging Her, and pleading with Her, and presenting evidence to Her...She still refused to let you into the afterlife, on the grounds that your powers could collosally fuck the land of the dead, sending us all to a hell-like world.”

“We’re here!” A voice cried. 

It was Lila. She was skipping towards them, her dark hair bouncing wildly with each step.

“Babe!” Diego called. “Where’ve you been?”

“Helping Ben and Dave with the final preparations!”

Klaus paused, overwhelmed. His heart began to pound in his chest.

_ This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real- _

Jogging at a slow place, considerably behind Lila, was Ben. When he saw Klaus, he slowed into a walk, and stuck his arm straight up into the air, waving.

“ _ Anyway-” _ Five said, reigning the attention back to him. “We compromised. She wouldn’t agree to bring you there, but She took pity on you. And I think after eight-hundred years, we were  _ really  _ annoying the shit out of Her. So, She agreed to bring us here. We’re allowed to come and go from your world to the afterlife as we please, and...”

Five looked back at the rest of his siblings who looked at each other and smiled.

“-I think we’ll be spending a lot of time here.”

Klaus shook his head, his eyes watering for the first time in a long time.

“No,” he said through a mouthful of waffles. “You’re not real.”

Ben sank down before Klaus, and Klaus looked at his brother sadly. Ben gave him a sad smile, and Klaus stopped chewing to frown longingly at his brother. Ben pulled his legs under him and sat on the grass close to his brother. Suddenly, Ben slapped Klaus in the face, prompting him to spit out another mouthful of waffle onto the ground.

“If we weren’t real, could I do that?”

“No.” Klaus giggled, tears spilling over his eyes. “I don’t think you could.”

Ben snorted. 

“Yeah, well-”

He didn’t finish, because Klaus had pulled him into a tight hug, resting his head on his brother’s shoulder.

“Oh, thank  _ god _ !” Klaus sobbed. “You’re here. You’re all really here!”

“Of course we are,” Ben said, looking at his siblings over Klaus’s shoulder. “We’re a family. Together, always.”

Klaus pulled away from Ben, and he tried to breathe between sobs.

“Diego-” he choked. “I’m sorry, I’m so  _ sorry _ !”

“Sorry for what?” Diego asked, running his fingertip lightly over the edge of Klaus’s knife.

“Oh! Uh-” Ben said, and snapped his fingers like he was trying to remember something. He leaned in towards Klaus.

“-He doesn’t remember that part.”

“Oh,” Klaus smiled, and cocked his head to the side.

“Yeah let’s keep it that way.” Luther said, shifting awkwardly on his feet and glancing nervously down at Diego.

“Remember what?” Diego demanded, looking back at his siblings.

Five clasped his hands together, and turned to Klaus. 

“Where should we go?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Wait, no, Five. Don’t change the subject!” Diego growled. “Remember  _ what?” _

“Well,” Klaus said, playfully ignoring Diego. “I was heading towards this beautiful cliffside that I once woke up to...eight...hundred years ago.”

“That sounds amazing!” Allison exclaimed, already pushing past Diego.

“Agreed.” Luther nodded, exchanging a bemused glance with Vanya.

“So it’s settled.” Ben looked around at his brothers and sisters. “The Cliffside?”  
Everyone nodded in agreement, except for Diego, who was too caught up in his paranoia to answer.

“ _ GUYSSS-” _ He whined, getting to his feet.

Luther took Diego’s shoulder, and pointed him in the direction Klaus was facing before he collapsed.

“Nope,” he said to Diego. “To the cliffs we go!”

As Diego continued to whine, and the Hargreeves started forward, Klaus gently grabbed Ben’s arm to hold him back.

“Klaus?” Ben asked, facing his brother.

Klaus looked around at the sky, and put his hands on his hips. 

“I saw a cloud the other day that looked like Meryl Streep-”

“ _ Klaus-” _

“It had her hair and everything. It was art, really.”

Ben turned and began to walk away.

“Wait!” Klaus shouted. He sighed dramatically, and stumbled forward a few feet.

“Okay-” he exhaled loudly, and nodded. “I’m really grateful for everything you did. And… and I love you...bro.”

Ben smiled, and looked down for a moment.

“I love you too...bro.” He said, looking back at Klaus, unable to contain his smug joy.

They stood there, smiling at each other for a moment, before Klaus broke the silence. 

“Well, I suppose we should go,” he said, putting an arm around Ben. “Before Luther gets them lost.”

Ben smiled at his brother, and swayed slightly into Klaus. He looked out at his other siblings, a little ways ahead, and found himself grinning so hard his face hurt. Five and Vanya had their heads bowed towards each other, talking quietly. Luther had his arm lightly around Allison, and forcibly around Diego, who had stopped complaining and stomped alongside Luther in protest. They were all headed in the wrong direction, with Luther guiding them. This was all Ben had ever wanted. What he searched for for five-hundred years. Klaus raised the arm that wasn’t around Ben’s shoulder, and pumped his fist.

“WOOOOO!” he howled, and Vanya, Luther, and Allison joined in. Five lifted his fist in response, and Diego gave him the finger. It was just like old times.

“I hope you’re okay with us crashing at your place. Indefinitely.” Ben said, squeezing Klaus’s shoulders with his arms.

Klaus snorted, and smiled at his brother. “Am I  _ okay _ with it? I’m finally in heaven.”

Ben smiled, and looked back. A new silhouette was on the horizon, and Ben let go of Klaus.

“Not quite yet you’re not...there’s someone else here for you.” He pointed to Dave, who was now jogging towards them, a big grin on his face.

“ _ Dave _ ,” Klaus cried, tears now streaming easily down his face. He broke into a sprint as Dave picked up his pace. Ben watched them embrace,and smiled.

He turned back to the cluster of his ignorant siblings who took no notice.

“Hey guys,” Ben called. “Hold up!”

He smiled, as Luther stopped and playfully pushed Diego. Klaus and Dave continued to hold each other a little ways away from everything else. There had been many titles associated with Klaus in life - addict, soldier, slut, brother. But one he hadn’t considered until long after his death - survivor. He had never fit in during life, like his siblings, and they hadn’t fit in during death either. So, being the Hargreeves, they blazed their own trail. They found a way to stay together and turned a purgatory into a private little heaven. Because nothing could keep them apart, and because that is how the Hargreeves survived. Just like that. 


End file.
